


The Price of Perfection

by NotQuiteHumanAnymore



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe- Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, M/M, THIS ONE HAS CHAPTER TITLES TOO I'M SO HAPPY ABOUT THAT, That should be everyone, aka no New Prophecy, no memory loss, this is technically the Beauty and the Beast AU that nobody asked for, wow so many tags i'll just be done with that now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-03 17:40:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 54,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1753229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotQuiteHumanAnymore/pseuds/NotQuiteHumanAnymore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During an ambush, Reyna gets killed, and Jason decides that he'll follow in the footsteps of many (greek) heroes, and goes to get her from the Underworld. While there, he makes a deal for Reyna's soul. He will stay in the Underworld for a year, and if Reyna can prove herself, then at the end of the year, they can both go free.<br/>But when Jason meets Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades who stays in the Underworld to keep him company, he begins to wonder if he really wants to leave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Day Before

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter one isn't my favorite, but please bear with me! It gets better, I swear!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> I didn't change too much about this chapter, just some basic spelling and grammar, but the next four chapters have some dialogue chunks added, or extra description and plot.  
> Still not my favorite chapter. That honor is reserved to chapter twelve, which hasn't been completely finished yet, because editing is hard.

Jason and Reyna were fighting side-by-side on the hill covering Camp Jupiter. A horde of monsters had come a-calling, and Reyna and Jason knew that they could handle the onslaught of foes.

Until, all of a sudden, they couldn’t.

The number of monsters grew and they managed to separate Jason from Reyna, breaking their formation, and making Jason briefly wish that he hadn’t refused help from the rest of his legion, but only briefly, because then he was ducking, and rolling, and generally trying not to die. Their scouts had reported far fewer monsters than this, and Jason would have been worried, except it was him and _Reyna_. If anyone could beat these clowns, it was the Praetors of New Rome.

Jason slashed and stabbed and kicked and leapt his way from the jaws of death (literally) time and again. He knew that the horde of monsters wouldn’t last forever, _couldn’t_ last forever, wherever they’d come from. But they were attacking with a vengeance that Jason found almost difficult to match time and again. His perception of time warped until it was just him vs a monster, each one of them almost blurring together into one giant final boss from that card game that his legionnaire Frank Zhang always played. Or, maybe that wasn’t right. Jason didn’t know, he didn’t play the game. Even though Jason knew that time was passing, and with each second that it took another monster was vanquished, it was still a bit of a surprise when he stabbed the final monster, his spear sticking through its throat, it’s mouth in a perfect ‘O’ of surprise as it collapsed into dust and he whirled-only to find nothing else behind him, waiting to attack.

He grabbed his spear and retracted it to its coin form, turning to grin at Reyna and boast that he’d _totally_ killed more monsters than she had.

In a perfect world, that’s what would have happened. They would have laughed and bantered all of the way back to camp. They would have gone for coffee, and complained about their new augur, Octavian.

But this was not a perfect world. Instead, Jason turned to find Reyna on the ground, her eyes wide and unblinking, her mouth in a terrible replica ‘O’ of the monster that Jason had just felled, her heart literally torn from her chest.

That was it, there had been no grand speeches, no final whispered words or last requests. Just death, swift and silent, and the body of one of the greatest friends that Jason had ever had the pleasure to know.

He wasn’t aware of falling to his knees, or howling in rage and despair, but he must have, because the young girl with the gold hair and eyes--Hazel, he thought her name was--who had joined his legion mere months before was there, her sword drawn and her eyes anxious, as if she had expected to find another enemy. But there wasn’t one. The only enemy left was Death.

Jason took Reyna’s body and started walking.

It wasn’t until later that he realized that Hazel, as a daughter of Pluto, had probably been able to sense Reyna’s passing.

 


	2. The Day Of

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's part two! It's longer than the last one, and I'm rather happy about that! Tell me if I made any mistakes in grammar/spelling (most of this was typed on my phone, so I probably didn't catch _everything_.) or if you disagree with my characterization!  
>  Edit: 6.18.16  
> Again, fixed some minor spelling errors, added some dialogue to make things flow more smoothly, etc. If I missed anything, gimme a shout

He managed to postpone the funeral. He called in a few favors from the campers he trusted completely and they agreed to guard her body, and would continue to until her soul returned, or she started to decompose.

Step One: Complete.

Unfortunately, step two would not be so easily achieved.

Apparently, Hazel, had a few scruples about leading people down into the Underworld. Or maybe just about the Underworld in general, he wasn’t too clear on the details. She looked up at him with her wide, sad eyes.

"Jason, I _can’t!_ ” She repeated, twirling an emerald between her fingers. Jason wasn’t sure where the emerald had come from, but it was the third one she’d picked up. “You don’t know what it’s like down there. If you’re not careful, you--yes, even the mighty Jason grace--will get caught, with no way to get out. And who’s to say you could even get Reyna back, anyway?” More gemstones were popping up around her feet, now. Jason ignored that, shaking his head.

“I have to try.” Hazel finally met his eyes. She hesitated a moment longer before nodding, realizing that there was no way to dissuade the Praetor from his course of action.

They left in the dead of night, when they were certain Octavian and his goons were asleep. Jason could just see him try to pull something while Jason’s back was turned, the rat.

His idea was relatively simple: Go to the Underworld, convince Hades (he hoped it would be Hades, anyway, he wasn’t exactly begging to meet the Roman incarnation of Hades, anyway. Mainly because of something Lupa said a long time ago.

_One day the Greeks and Romans will end up working side by side, and Pluto will not be happy to see you or the friends you bring with you._

He’d also been told not to mention to anyone that there were two sides to their precious gods, on pain of Lupa tearing his throat out and sending him to Pluto the hard way.

So, yeah, Hades would be infinitely preferable.) to give Reyna back, and get back before Octavian to even locate a proper stuffed animal to sacrifice.

Easy peasy.

Except, Hazel didn’t seem to think so, and that wasn’t exactly doing anything for Jason’s confidence.

“Don’t eat anything.” She repeated for about the hundredth time. “Don’t talk to anyone, heck, don’t _look_ at anything if you can help it. I’m taking you the back way, just follow the path to the palace gates. Don’t touch the water-- _any of it_ \--and don’t even think about drinking it.” She stopped talking for a second, trying to think of more warnings, apparently, and the air around them became heavy with the silence her voice left behind. “You don’t have to worry about Cerberus, he’s an absolute sweetheart, but ignore Charon if you see him. It’ll make you seem more dead.” She took another deep breath and stopped walking. They had reached a pair of iron gates that seemed to radiate cold. “This is as far as I can take you.” She whispered, sounding like she regretted the fact greatly. But Jason had asked her to return to camp and wait for Reyna’s soul to return and then him as well. She had looked relieved when he asked her to stay behind, but he hadn’t been offended, he had a past, too. “Repeat back what I told you.” He did as she asked, realizing that she’d inadvertently had him memorize it. She nodded when he finished, seemingly satisfied, waving a hand, making the gates creak open slowly. “One last thing, at the risk of sounding overly dramatic.”

“I think we passed that mark when we decided to visit the Underworld.”  He rolled his eyes, and gained a small smile in return. She had him look her in the eyes as she continued.

“Don’t make any deals. This is the Underworld, Jason. All deals are final.”

Jason nodded, her warning echoing in his ears, even as he felt the tunnel close behind him, blocking out the sun and Hazel’s reassuring presence as it did so.

Jason followed the tunnel for what felt like days. The air grew heavy around him. It got to the point where it almost seemed like there was no air at all. Jason didn’t breathe, he just kept moving. He kept walking, he had to get to Reyna. He had to save her before it was too late.

He tried not to think that it might already be too late.

He wasn’t fully aware of the ground leveling out until he could see plains of grasses going on for miles. He felt a pull in his abdomen, telling him to take a few steps forward and lose himself in the grasses. They were calling out to him, singing for him.

A hand grabbed his arm and pulled him away, breaking the spell. He stumbled back, whipping around to see who had grabbed him. He was just in time to see a slender hand retreating into the stalks of wheat behind that bordered either side of the path.

He looked back at the fields and it came flooding back to him: The Fields of Asphodel, the final resting place for mere mortals. Jason shuddered, he’d nearly lost himself in those wheat fields.

He stuck to the path around them, knowing that sooner or later, he would make his way into the main area (would it be considered a city? He didn't think so. A city generally meant inhabitants, living, breathing people to keep it running smoothly. A city of the dead wouldn't really be a city, in that respect.) and then to the Palace.

It took hundreds of years and more close calls than Jason wanted to admit (he nearly fell into the Styx... _twice_!) but Jason found himself at last before the pearly gates of the Underworld. To his credit, he realized almost instantly that the gates weren’t actually pearly, but instead gruesome and made out of entire human skeletons fused together. He nearly vomited at the thought, but he approached them nonetheless. When they didn’t open right away he cleared his throat. He hadn’t come this far for nothing. He bowed to the gates, knowing it would be far better to be overly respectful, if the other end of the deal was offending the gods and getting struck down.

“Jason Grace, Praetor of New Rome, here to...” he choked out the word “ _beg_ for the soul of Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano.”

The gates swung open soundlessly, and Jason darted inside before the operator could change their mind.

He raced along the last leg of the path, ignoring the stretch of trees and bushes formed from gemstones and precious metals. The green glow of the torches on either side of the Palace doors reflected off of them in Jason’s periphery, threatening a distraction that would mean worse than death. The doors swung open silently as he approached, and he was inside of the Palace of the Underworld, home to the god of Death.

His footsteps echoed against the onyx walls of the palace, but he was surprised to find that it wasn’t the only noise he heard. He could also make out the footsteps and laughter of what appeared to be ghost children, and he even got glimpses of them as he followed his gut (which he did by going in the direction _opposite_ of where it wanted him to run) to the throne room.

They were both there, waiting for him. Obviously they’d known he was coming, and he’d known what he was ultimately getting himself into, but it was one thing to _know_ and another to actually _see_ them.

Hades (thankfully it was Hades, and not his Roman counterpart. Jason had encountered Pluto before, after the battle against the titans on Mount Othrys. He’d been more severe looking, and hadn’t spared Jason anything more than a glance. Jason had been incredibly glad of this, and though he denied it fervently, he had hidden from the god’s gaze behind Reyna’s taller form. The most noticeable difference, though, were their eyes. Hades’ eyes had been a deep, rich gold, as opposed to Hades’ rich black irises. His hair had been longer, too, whereas Hades had his cropped short.) was tall, bordering on seven foot. He was a dark skinned man who looked like he’d lost all hope for the world, the lines around his eyes and mouth looked sad and bitter, and a little bit resigned to what was going on around him. The only time he looked the slightest bit happy was when he was looking at Persephone.

But then he saw Jason, and his face seemed to morph, twisting into a mask of infinite condescension and cruelty. Beside him, Persephone looked like spring personified (which, Jason realized sheepishly, she kind of was). Her skin was tanned and her eyes bright and full of life, even in this dark place, but her mouth was twisted into a sad grimace at her husband's’ sudden transformation. She looked like she resented Jason for it, and not just a little.

 _Perfect, Grace, here for three seconds and they already want to flay you_.

“Jason Grace.” Hades boomed, his voice echoing off of the walls and roaring in Jason’s ears, filling up every crevice so that no silence remained. “We meet at last.”

~~~

Being dead wasn’t _all_ bad, Reyna decided. Sure, there was a lot more waiting around than she’d initially anticipated, but the Underworld was a busy place. Also, she felt like she was waiting in an airport security line and _that_ was the bit she couldn’t stand. She hated airport security lines.

Far ahead, further than she would have liked, she could see a gigantic dog alternately barking excitedly or growling, depending on which way it’s head faced. The middle head--because, she realized, this was Cerberus, and there were three--drooped forward slightly, looking as bored as Reyna felt.

She’d even tried stepping out of the line a few times, but whenever she did, she would just materialize back in the spot she’d occupied before, tucked away between a baker with an axe in his chest, and a drug addict, by the look of him.

The only excitement came when she saw the gates to the west (she assumed they were in the west, it felt like the west) opened to let something in. The spirits around her all got in a bit of a tizzy over that. Apparently it didn’t happen often that Pluto’s palace had visitors. Who knew? Reyna sighed and hoped the line would start to move faster.

The spirits all took a collective step forward.

At least it was progress.

~~~

“You are here for the soul of the girl who died beside you, isn’t that right, sweetheart?” Persephone’s voice reminded Jason of the farms in New Rome, of the wind rustling through wheat fields and sunshine opening the flower buds to the sky. He had to fight hard not to be drawn in by the sound of her voice rather than listening to her words. She seemed to have forgiven him for upsetting her husband, and was now regarding him with the same sort of affection that an aunt would give her favorite nephew.

“Yes, Ma’am.” She flashed a radiant smile at him,

“So polite!” Her brow furrowed, “But I’m afraid that we just don’t do things like that, Jason.”

“But it wasn’t her time!” He protested. Hades’ mouth curled into a smile.

“Many have said that, but they all have one thing in common: they’re down here. Which, ultimately, means that it _was_ their time, and they couldn’t do anything about it anyway.”

“There have been exceptions!” Jason cried, growing desperate. “Orph--”

“All exceptions were made in the cases of absolute, unwavering love,” Persephone cut in, smoothly, “do you love Reyna?” Jason respected her, sure, loved her like family, knew he couldn’t even _be_ in Camp Jupiter without her, but that was all. He didn’t love her the way that the Campers expected him to, the way that Persephone was clearly talking about.

“No.” He admitted at length. Hades leaned back, ready to dismiss him, and Jason stepped forward desperately. “But she’s better than dying like this! She deserves so much more, she has so much left to do! So much left to give!”

“The same argument has been made for--”

“They’re not Reyna!” Jason cried, “Forgive me, sir, but I must speak plainly, and her life is worth hundreds of theirs. She is worth more in the time that she’s been dead than I am in an entire year! No one up on Earth would last a day without her. _Please_. I am begging you, and begging does not come easily to me.”

The King and Queen of Hell regarded Jason coolly before turning to each other and debating Jason's plea. Eventually, they turned back to him, a bright smile on Persephone's expressive features.

"Well, Jason," He felt his heart soar. "We have decided to..." She trailed off, her face going slack and her eyes glazing over, as did Hades' beside her. A whispering noise filled the room, and Jason tried to make out what it was saying, but it was everywhere, the words bouncing around the chamber and ricocheting against his eardrums painfully. A cold wind rushed about the room and departed, making it seem somehow emptier than before. Jason's heart sank to the general region of his knees. Persephone opened her mouth, and the words were just as lovely as before, but now there was an almost robotic quality to her words. Not monotone, but lacking depth, lacking _life_. "We have decided to make you a deal. We shall monitor what happens both in the Underworld and in Earth. If what you say is true, then you have nothing to worry about. If not, then both you and Reyna will end up becoming children of the Underworld far sooner than you would like.

"You will reside with us for exactly one year. If, in that time, your friend Reyna proves herself worthy of your good faith, then you will both be allowed to leave and the end of it." She smiled and it was like someone had dumped ice water all over Jason. "Otherwise, you will face the laws of the Underworld accordingly. If you do not wish to risk it, you may leave now, and no one would judge you for it--" Hades mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "I would" but Persephone pressed on. "it is your choice, Jason Grace."

He knew what he should say. He knew what he was _supposed_ to say, Hazel's warning bounced around his head. Jason looked from Hades to Persephone and wondered if he could last the year. It wasn't even a choice, in the end.

"I'll do it."

_Sorry, Hazel._

~~~

There were only two people left in front of Reyna, a nun (Elysium) and axe man (Asphodel). Of course, Reyna never figured out where they were going, because something grabbed her and hurled her toward the ceiling, and as she hit, everything went black.

She woke, screaming and very much alive in the temple of Bellona, with Hazel Levesque beside her and Octavian looking mad enough to spit fire. She glared at him.

“Don't test me, augur. I have literally been to Hell and back today." Octavian turned on his heel and left the room, his robes swishing behind him in a facsimile of importance. Hazel pushed Reyna back onto the table. It was royally uncomfortable, but when Hazel ordered her to sleep, her traitorous eyes couldn't seem to disobey. She slept for two more days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Not sure when the next one will be up, but I have free time coming up, and that should help with the writing and posting!! I'd say expect it Wednesday night, but I don't want to get anyone's hopes up!!  
> In the meantime, you can bug me about getting back to writing on my tumblr @scarletwix!  
> If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a Hades/Persephone shipper, because I really don't think that the goddess of springtime (aka the physical embodiment for hope and rebirth) would a) allow herself to be kidnapped and b) just give up while she was in the Underworld.  
> Also I read and loved the dark wife, and that probably has something to do with it.


	3. Before and After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whoo! Finally here! Sorry it's so late, real life decided that summer was when it was going to kick my ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd, as usual, so inform me if there are any glaring mistakes, please :)  
> Edit: 6.18.16  
> I changed a lot of the wording for the middle of this chapter, so if something doesn't make sense and I didn't catch it because it's midnight and i've been up too long, lemme know @scarletwix

Time moved differently in the Underworld, Jason discovered. He felt like he’d been down here for hundreds of years, but when he asked a passing Persephone, she’d smiled at him kindly.

“You’ve only been down here about three days, Jason. Don’t worry, though,” she’d amended at his alarmed expression, “You’ll get used to it, quickly.” He nodded, only now remembering that she’d probably wandered these halls as well, wondering how many eons she’d lived in those first six months. He’d turned back to ask how she’d dealt with it, but she was already gone. He sighed again, resigning himself to meandering around the Palace of the Underworld, again.

He hadn’t seen any of the ghost children since the first day that he’d been there, and, while not entirely surprised, he wished that they _had_ been there, for the company, or at least the sound of another human(ish) voice.

He let his weary feet carry him along the corridors, trying to memorize the way around the palace, as he would be here about 362 more days, and it would be in his best interest not to get himself lost.

In his wanderings, he found quite a few intriguing aspects to Hades’ palace that he’d never even dreamed existed. He didn’t go around thinking about what the palace of Hades--or Pluto, even--would look like, but in his head he had an image of skeleton armies and a crumbling castle. He was rather sorely disappointed. True, there were skeleton sentinels at every entrance to the palace, but there wasn’t much else that Jason would have found typical in the Palace of the Dead.  He did find a room full of darkness (literally), that was cold as ice to the touch, and nearly sucked him in. He didn’t want to know where he would have ended up if he _had_ gone ahead and walked in. There was also a room full of old women with leathery wings and claws chattering about some new romance novel, which was almost enough to send him screaming in the opposite direction. The last room, that he spent almost an hour in (if the replica of the sun on the ceiling was anything to go off of), was filled with all manner of fruits growing from trees and pomegranates growing from bushes. There were jewels all around the room in cases like a jewelry store, and in the middle of the room sat a series of rotating shelves. On the center shelf sat a large red toolbox. He felt drawn to it, irrationally, and as he stood looking down at it, he realized that he needed to get out of there as fast as was humanly possible, or risk becoming the next Pandora.

He really hoped that Hope wasn’t stuck in a toolbox the Underworld.

He was still waiting to find a closet full of skeletons. It was the Underworld; it was practically a law that there should be skeletons in a closet or something equally morbid. He sighed and felt the last of the energy leave his bones, so he trudged back in the general direction of his “room”.

That first night, Hades had found him walking, confused and more than a little frightened, but refusing to show it, and had looked at him silently for a moment. If Jason hadn’t known better, he would have thought that Hades looked confused at his presence. Then a flash of... something had come over the god and he’d pointed to the right.

“Down the hall, turn left, the third to last door should be empty.” And then Hades had gone, as if he’d never been there to begin with. Jason followed the directions to a plain, but surprisingly bright room. A crystal attached to the ceiling glowed whenever Jason entered, and it illuminated the small bed in the corner, and the low table on the wall opposite the door. Jason beelined for the bed and fell asleep instantly.

Hours, or maybe even days later, Jason woke to a low, amused voice echoing from across the room.

“Well this is new.” The voice drawled. Jason started, falling out of the thin bed. He craned his neck to see the newcomer, and his eyes were met with darkness.

Like, actual darkness.

“What?” Because really, the Underworld was one thing, now he was being trolled by _shadows_?

“Sorry. I’ve never encountered another living being in the Shadows before. It’s... interesting.” Said the voice.

“No seriously, what?”

“Oh Hades, you didn’t mean to do this, did you?”

“I don’t understand?” Jason was beginning to freak out just a bit. The darkness was closing in on him, clawing its way down his throat. He still couldn’t see who he was talking to, and that wasn’t helping him, either. There was an exasperated sigh somewhere from above him.

“Hold still for a moment.” Jason did as the voice asked. Everyone knows you obey disembodied voices, or you end up dead in a ditch with, like, bird wings instead of arms. So he sat still, hands shaking and taking ragged gasps of darkness.

Then, what felt like hands, their touch feather light. Jason could feel the pads of the other person’s thumbs--because it had to be a person, or a humanoid being, at this point--on his cheekbones and the tips of their middle fingers pressing lightly against Jason’s temples.

Slowly, the darkness begins to recede from his vision, leaving him blinking away spots as if he’d been snow blinded. The area around him was still dark, but it was fluctuating, different places speeding past as if pushed by a current. He was kneeling on what looked like a monochrome version of the yellow brick road, his hands raw from scrambling for purchase against the rough stone. He looked to the side and saw a slender hand still brushing against his cheek, as though reassuring him that the other person was still there. He turned his head slightly and saw the boy that knelt in front of him.

From what he could tell, in this black and white version of reality, the boy was pale, but his skin had a greyish tinge to it, that spoke of a naturally darker skin tone. His face was bony and haggard, almost, with dark circles below his eyes.

Jason resolutely avoided his eyes, slightly ashamed of how he’d nearly passed out in fright. Instead, Jason noticed everything else. The boy’s fingers were gentle where they pressed against his cheek. He seemed to radiate a certain warmth, making Jason realize how cold it was in this half-universe. His hair was long, like he hadn’t had time to cut it in a while, but it looked soft.

As if realizing what Jason was doing--or rather, wasn’t doing--when he still wouldn’t meet the boy’s eyes, one corner of his mouth quirked up, revealing bone-white teeth. It wasn’t a full smile, but Jason didn’t mind, because it was close, and for some reason, it kept him grounded that much more.

“Don’t worry, it happens to everyone the first time they shadow travel. It can be a little... overwhelming. I was a blubbering mess once I finally made it back outside.” Jason found that a little hard to believe, but the boy’s reassurances gave him the courage to finally meet his eyes. Suddenly, he could feel the blood rushing in his veins again. He hadn’t even realized that it had stopped. “That’s it.” The boy said, nodding encouragingly, “come back to the land of the living.” He grimaced. “Er. Sort of.” Jason barely heard what he was saying.

The boy’s eyes were beautiful. They shone with a suppressed energy that Jason could see vibrating through the boy’s entire being, itching to be let free. They were fixed on Jason, sizing him up curiously. “Are you a son of Hades as well? I’ve never come upon another human being when Shadow Travelling.” Jason shook his head, fighting for his voice.

“Jupiter.” He croaked. “I’m a son of Jupiter.”

“What’s your name, Son of Jupiter?” The boy asked, dropping his hand and leaving Ice in its wake.

“Jason Grace.” Something else flickered in his eyes, but was gone before Jason could figure out what it was. “And who are you, son of Hades?”

“Nico Di Angelo.” He said, standing. “Let’s get you back, Jason.” Jason shook his head.  
“No, I have to go to the underworld.” The boy closed his eyes, his eyebrows raising imperceptibly, in the universal _what in the world have you done_ gesture

“Why, in the name of the twelve Olympians, do you have to do that?” Jason grimaced.

“I sort of made a deal with your father.”

“So you’re _that_ Jason Grace.” Nico didn’t sound surprised, just a little amused, but that could be said about the whole conversation, so Jason tried not to read into it. “Well then, let’s get you back to the land of the dead.” Jason took Nico’s outstretched hand, and the land of shadows was gone.

~

“So what happened? How am I back?” Reyna was talking to the one person she knew wouldn’t run from her questions. Hazel Levesque had her hands clenched around the hilt of her cavalry sword, and she looked at Reyna from the corner of her eye.

“Are you sure you want to know?”

“Yes.” Hazel sighed and waved off her boyfriend, Frank, who she’d been sparring with. They moved out of their ready positions and he looked from Hazel to Reyna and shrugged. He kissed Hazel on the cheek and ran off.

“I don’t know everything, just that you died fighting monsters, and Jason went to get you back.”

“How did I die?” Hazel looked her over, but didn’t falter in her response, knowing that Reyna needed this for her own peace of mind.

“You were stabbed through the heart with a spear. Long distance shot.” Reyna nodded, the scarring on her chest now explained.

“So what then?”

“I don’t know. You came back, so I assume Jason succeeded, but he hasn’t returned from the underworld.”

“That’s not a good sign.” Reyna muttered, Hazel sighed heavily.

“No, it isn’t.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can yell at me for taking so long on tumblr @scarletwix  
> Thanks to those of you stuck with me for this long (if anyone's still here, that is...)  
> Next update much sooner, swear on my heart or however the saying goes.


	4. Damn Tourists

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, look who missed the deadline the day she made the deadline. Bravo, me.  
> So updates will continue on Wednesdays as planned, but I had a paper that smacked me in the face, and I ended up writing that until I had to either sleep or fall over, so.  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> Didn't change much this time, just kind of tried to tie in some of the lore and make things flow more easily. If you wish I had taken a wrecking ball to this chapter, tell me so @scarletwix on tumblr.  
> I'll do the rest after the sunrise wakes me up in about 4 hours

Jason never thought he'd be relieved to see the underworld of all places, but here he was, hand-in-hand with Nico Di Angelo inside of Hades' palace. The second this thought entered Jason's mind, Nico dropped his hand as though Jason had burned him.

"How'd you even get into the Shadow Realm anyway?" He asked gruffly.

"I have no idea, actually. The last thing I remember is falling asleep." They were walking, now, wandering in and out of corridors. It took Jason a minute to gain his bearings and realize that they were actually heading out of the palace, rather than further in.

Nico was silent, so Jason didn't say anything, either. He wasn't going to lie, he liked being able to stay silent for a moment. In Camp Jupiter, it had always been one thing after another. And then, as Praetor, he had been forced into sociability.

And it was exhausting, frankly, having to talk to everybody all of the time, even on bad days. Sometimes especially on bad days. But he powered through, because it was expected of him. People didn't think that he didn't want to talk. He was Jason Grace, Praetor of New Rome, of Course he wanted to talk. So, it was nice to just walk in companionable silence for a while. And they did just that. However, as they neared the gate, Nico broke the silence.

"How far are you allowed to go, exactly?"

Jason thought about it. There hadn't really been any restrictions in the agreement he'd made with Hades. He shrugged.

"I just don't think I'm supposed to go topside." Was Jason seeing things, or did Nico Di Angelo just smile? He wasn't sure. He found that he really wanted to be sure.

"Topside?" A smirk. It was a smirk.

"I stand by it."

"Alright then." They took a few more steps and were off of the palace grounds.

There was no earthquake, no otherworldly being appearing (or not appearing) to pull him backwards, he didn't get torn in half.

Jason hadn't even realized that he'd been waiting for something to happen until it didn't. Nico raised an eyebrow and Jason realized that he hadn't moved.  He shook off the feeling of uneasiness with a sheepish smile and he followed Nico further into the Underworld.

Slowly, Jason became aware that Nico was preparing himself to say something. He recognized it mainly because he used the same tactic when he needed to give big speeches, or join Reyna on the Council. Jason walked beside him in silence, letting Nico get his bearings.

"I think I figured it out. Why you were there when I was shadow travelling." Nico said, interrupting the gravel crunching beneath their feet. Jason made an encouraging noise and waited for Nico to continue. "The ghosts told me about you, ages before we even met. They've all been whispering about the mortal who made a deal with the devil. I didn't believe it at first, they tend to make up stories to entertain themselves--"

"Ghost stories?" Jason blurted, before he could stop himself. Nico blinked and huffed out a half-laugh behind his hand.

"Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, they were all wondering when your body was going to reject the environment down here and render your deal moot. I decided I'd heard enough of it and tried to shadow travel away. And who would I run into but the main character in their stories?" Jason grimaced. "But I just remembered what they said about your body rejecting the environment, and I think you dreaming yourself into the shadow realm was your body's way of adapting to the environment, rather than rejecting it.

"Do you think it will happen again?" Nico hesitated.

"No, but don't quote me on that."

"It was probably a good thing you found me, in any case."

"It's an excellent thing that I found you. If I hadn't you'd probably still be stuck there." Jason was quiet for a moment.

"Funny how those things work out."

"Funny."

They were back to silence, and suddenly, Jason wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted to hear Nico talk again, wanted him to sound as interested in something else as he had been the mystery of Jason's appearance in the “Shadow Realm” or whatever he called it.

“So where are you taking me?” Jason asked. Nico glanced over him.

“You’re going to be here for a while,” he said with a shrug, “might as well get used to the surroundings.”

They lapsed back into silence, only this time, Jason didn’t find it quite so frustrating. This might have had to do with the fact that suddenly there was stuff to look at. Rather than black sand stretching out for miles, while they’d been talking actual _scenery_ had cropped up. There were roads and pathways lit by obsidian torches. In places the very walls seemed to glow blue, the light flickering and shattering against the gems embedded everywhere, throwing the light ever further. To Jason’s right ran the Styx, a river of oily black water, and here and there, Jason swore he saw a face or a hand reaching out to them. Nico walked on as if he saw none of this, but Jason could see the way his eyes tightened and his lips thinned when he saw the specters sigh and reach across the riverbank.

Still they walked forward, the river was overtaken by the fields of Asphodel, and Jason found himself memorizing the paths in a way he never could inside the palace. There the hallways changed and disappeared, and he’d bet his spleen that it was just to mess with him, because he was a newbie and a son of Jupiter stuck in the Underworld. Out here, away from the direct influence of Hades, the Underworld seemed almost... kinder? The scenery changed around him to reflect that near-kindness he felt. The grasses of Asphodel thinned, allowing Jason to see the people.

And oh, _the people_.

They couldn’t be described as ghosts, or even the specters that had been floating through the river. They weren’t at all what Jason had expected. They weren’t transparent, or lifeless, or gaunt and colorless. In fact, as Jason watched them, he wondered if maybe they didn’t have _more_ life than some of the people that Jason saw back in California.

Jason kept watching, and his surprise turned to awe as children danced around their feet and pulled on Nico’s arms. They didn’t seem at all saddened by their own deaths, instead reverting back to their innocence and preferring to be happy. Jason wondered if he saw what they did, or if there was something different here for everyone.

For a second, the first genuine smile Jason had seen from Nico crossed his face as he looked down at the happiness on these kids’ faces. Nico seemed to glow with an ethereal white light, bringing out the life in his features and the natural tan of his skin.

His attention was torn from Nico by the sound of a small gasp from the general area of his feet. When he looked down the child in question squeaked and scampered back to a group of ghosts that were talking and laughing together.

“Asphodel is losing its hold on humanity.” Jason jumped at the sound of Nico’s voice so close to him.

“Huh?” The ghost of Nico’s smile was still on his face. It was very distracting, though Jason couldn’t quite place why.

“People used to be unimaginative, unaware of anything but their own survival and their own lives. Now they’re aware of those around them, of situations in the world, of people who need their help or need to be put in their place, and they stop and _help_ each other. Humanity is becoming more _involved_ with each other than ever. It’s made them aware to the point that Asphodel’s magic is no longer effective on the people who come in. There are many who willingly stay in Asphodel, merely because they’ve been here for so long, because they know nothing else, but those who want to _explore_ now have a conditional freedom within the underworld. They can’t wander over to Elysium, the Isles of the Blessed, as those are blocked by the river Lethe. They generally won’t go to the Fields of Punishment, or Tartarus because they don’t _want_ to go there, and they can’t leave of course, but they’re no longer stuck in Asphodel alone. But they have no worries, every day is like the last and the spirits here are actually... _content_.”

“And that’s surprising?” Nico’s eyes flashed over to Jason, sizing him up, as if trying to see if the son of Jupiter was making fun of him. After a moment, the tension left his shoulders, and Jason wondered how long it had been there before he’d seen it. Nico seemed satisfied.

“Asphodel was created, initially, as a sort of pen for mankind’s ghosts. When Hades took over the Underworld, it was chaos, so he split the underworld into four parts. Asphodel--for the humans and demigods who didn’t do enough to be recognized, as heroic or otherwise. The Fields of Punishment, for those so infamous and evil that they have to be punished for eternity, or however long the Underworld lasts. Elysium, for those who died in a heroic way, and deserve to be awarded.” He paused, his eyes cast downward, his fists clenched to stop them from shaking. “The Isle of the Blessed, those who are so good, so heroic, that they’ve achieved Elysium in three different lifetimes.” He looked up, catching Jason’s eye, seeing if he was still listening. Jason gave him a small smile and Nico looked away.

“Each place has its own magic to it.” He jerked his head to where they’d been, and Jason hadn’t even realized that they’d been walking until Nico reached out a hand to stop him from stepping into another river. This one was a milky white, and as Nico talked Jason swore he saw the images Nico described reflected in the water below. “Asphodel keeps its occupants complacent, but that spell was made for simpler, more war-oriented minds, hence the spirits that are now outside. The residents of the Fields of Punishment are in such agony all of the time, that they become haunted by themselves and their memories. I don’t know what’s done to them, but some of the more daring ghosts have been there and seen what they go through. Apparently, they suffer at the hands of their own methods. They never get any sort of relief from that pain. _That_ magic is always moving and changing, such is its nature.” Nico looked over again, and seemed to be surprised that Jason was still listening, and doing so attentively. The truth was, for some reason, Jason couldn’t look away. As Nico became more involved in what he was saying, he got more and more animated, talking with his hands and gesturing at the river, which he didn’t seem at all surprised to see _was_ really showing the images that Nico spoke of. The glow across Nico’s shoulders and within his skin came back with a vengeance.

“And the others?” Jason prompted, when it became unclear if Nico would continue. Nico hesitated, swinging his arms stiffly at his sides, his face blazed with color, as if he was embarrassed.

“Elysium keeps its people happy and cognizant of their surroundings. They all know that they have a choice at any time, if they want to stay in Elysium, or if they want to try and reach the Isle of the Blessed and risk Punishment or Asphodel. The Isle of the Blessed is the only one I don’t know about. But, if I were to hazard a guess, I think that the Isle of the Blessed was a way for Hades to bring a piece of Olympus to the Underworld. It was a way for him to bring a piece of his home into what he views as a wasteland. I don’t know if it’s magic as much as it is,” he shot Jason an amused look, “wishful thinking.” There was a stretch of silence.

“Damn, Nico, I didn’t expect you to get all philosophical on me. Now I’m questioning my place in the universe. It’s unsettling.” He nudged Nico’s shoulder to show that he was joking. Nico rubbed the back of his neck and looked away so that Jason couldn’t see his smile. “But seriously, that sounds absolutely amazing, di Angelo. Where did you learn all of that?”

“Some of the ghosts have been around a long time. They’ve all got stories to tell, and sometimes they’ve figured out a few things in their journeys.” Nico looked back over to Jason, a smile playing at the edge of his lips, “and they’re _all_ just itching to talk to someone.” Jason felt a smile spread over his face.

“So that’s what you do? You’re the Ghost Whisperer!” Nico’s eyes went wide.

“The _what_?”

“It’s a really bad t.v. show. I’m going to have to show it to you sometime." Jason felt an irrational excitement about the possibility of a future where he sat down and watched this awful television show with someone who was almost a complete stranger. "Jennifer Love Hewitt is a medium who can talk to ghosts and she helps them find peace. It’s pretty great for bad t.v.” Nico made a scandalized noise in the back of his throat.

“But they’re already at peace!”

“It’s still good for them to have someone to talk to. How often do you come down here?”

“More often than I’d like to admit.” Nico sighed. “Come on, we’d better get you back to the palace. It’s getting late.” Jason didn’t know how he could tell, but he figured Nico would know. He _had_ spent more time there than Jason.

“After you then, Ghost Whisperer.”

“Sure thing, Cinderella.” Jason swore he could _feel_ Nico roll his eyes. They turned and walked back to the palace.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't my favorite, because I didn't show as much as I wanted, but I couldn't find good breaks without it getting choppy, and I wanted Jason to see this side of Nico, because you know, relationship development and all that. Also: the white glow around Nico is his aura, it's also how he knew that Jason was alive when he came across him in the Shadow Realm.  
> Jason's aura will be revealed later. ( **EDIT:** 6.18.16: HA!)  
>  Since this was all Jason, next chapter will be all Reyna (or mostly Reyna, anyway. I'm trying to make my chapters longer.) because Reyna's side is awesome.  
> Updates on the Progression of The Price of Perfection will be tagged as "price of perfection" on my Tumblr @scarletwix! So come talk to me if you liked/disliked/disagreed/etc!


	5. Concerning Praetors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the long awaited (by me, I love writing for Reyna) Reyna POV chapter holy crap!!  
> From here on out, I'll be switching POVs for the chapters, the next one will be Jason's the one after, Reyna's and so on.  
> Really excited for the next few chapters, because the plot really starts picking up now.  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> Minor cosmetic edits, some internal Reyna monologuing. These edits are all to tie the story together, so they won't make major differences in the chapter, but overall the story should be more cohesive when I finish it.

Reyna sat before the senate members, but she refused to let the disapproving glares of the ghosts and the eternally smug smirk on Octavian’s face get to her. The seat beside her was conspicuously empty, but she used that to her advantage, turning towards it slightly, so that Jason’s absence was more well defined.

“We can no longer pretend that my fellow Praetor, Jason Grace, is not missing. Without its second Praetor New Rome can only last for so long. Humbly,” Reyna ensured that she did not look humble as she stared into the eyes of every person and Lar in the front row. “I request that we send out a search to locate him.” She felt her stance go slightly rigid as the oily tones of Octavian filled the room.

“But isn’t it wise to presume that as he went to the Underworld to rescue _you_ ,” Octavian pointedly raised his eyebrows. Reyna kept her expression impassive, “that he is already dead?” Reyna wasn’t afraid to lie, or punch that smirk right off of his face in the middle of the Senate Hall, but she had to uphold her position, she had to make an example. As long as she kept her reasoning simple, she was sure that she would be able to pull this off without resorting to either tactic.

“The idea must be taken into account,” Reyna conceded, “but I do not see a body here, Octavian, do you?” She continued, before he had a chance to respond. “And shouldn’t it be assumed that someone powerful enough to defeat a titan singlehandedly would be able to escape the Underworld without much trouble?” A few titters and chuckles sounded, and Octavian's ears flamed. “Furthermore, it must be agreed that the death of a Praetor should not be assumed so lightly. Octavian, you may assume that he is dead, just as I may assume that Lord Mars sleeps with a stuffed animal. It is all conjecture, and there is absolutely no physical evidence to back up your claim. Until such evidence is uncovered, I say that we make no assumptions.” Reyna took a breath. Here is where the truth-tweaking came into play. “And, in any case, Hazel Levesque,” Reyna nodded to the girl in the second row who beamed at her encouragingly, not seeming to realize that many eyes had just turned to look at her, “daughter of Pluto has confirmed that she has not felt Jason’s soul enter the realm of the dead.”

“Is that a normal ability for a child of Pluto to have?” A Lar in the back shouted. Hazel seemed to suddenly become aware of the many eyes on her. She blushed and looked down at her hands.

“Hazel assures me that all children of Pluto have shown this ability. Both she and her brother have been able to sense the passing of people that they knew. Hazel, as it happens, was even able to sense my own death.” Silence rang in Reyna’s ears.

“I agree,” Said a Lar that she thought hung around Legion Two, “that a search party should be sent out. Slowly, a chorus of agreement echoed throughout the hall, with Octavian spitting out a final “ _Fine.”_ before the matter was back to Reyna. She had never been more aware of the empty chair beside her. Now was the time that Jason would have discreetly knocked her elbow in triumph. She’d been able to ignore his absence this far into the meeting because she normally did the talking with him jumping in only when he felt it was absolutely necessary, but now the silence echoed in the room and pressed down on her shoulders. Closing statements were the only times that Jason would speak for extended amounts of time. They were his specialty. He knew how to end things neatly, all tied together and wrapped with a bow.

“It’s decided, then. We will send a small group of people to search for Jason.”

“Who do you nominate to lead this group?”

Moment of truth.

“I nominate myself to lead this mission.” Reyna had expected the burst of outrage, anticipated it, even, so she was unfazed when she was on the receiving end of:

“That’s preposterous--!”

“Of all the foolhardy--”

“Completely reckless--”

“--without _two_ Praetors?!”

“Completely undefended?”

“How dare--”

She raised her hands and after a moment, the shouting turned into talking, which became harsh whispering, and, eventually, judgmental silence. She put her hands down.

“I know what you’re all thinking, believe me, but I wouldn’t even be asking if I hadn’t thought this through.”

“But what are we supposed to do without two Praetors?” Someone near the back spluttered. Reyna was getting very tired of this charade. She sighed quietly.

“Rome itself was an empire, the outermost regions thrived even when the emperor was gone. Are we expected to live up to the name of ‘Rome’ if we can’t even survive as one city?” Reyna pushed her fists into the armrests of the throne. “Besides, this is not unprecedented, as many of you know. In 1939, New Rome was left without it’s Praetors for three whole months while they were caught in a blizzard. New Rome would not be undefended even without us.” She paused. “I have decided on a person to appoint as Acting Praetor if you all are adamant on someone holding the seat.”

“You are going then, for sure?” The Lar from Reyna’s own Legion asked, a note of fatherly concern in his voice. She smiled at him.

“It does make the most sense, doesn’t it? No one in New Rome knows Jason the way that I do. I can track him in rain or shine. I know places he would go at any given moment to use as a safe house. It’s the most logical way that I can think of that will get both Praetors back to New Rome in a timely manner.” This was true, technically, but it did not exactly apply to their current situation. She had absolutely no idea where to start.

“And if you end up needing help?”

“I will not be alone. Hazel Levesque will be accompanying me, as will Argentum. Aurum and Argentum are linked. Any message that I give to one will be relayed to the other and the Acting Praetor will be given care of Aurum, and will be able to respond in kind.”

“You really have given this a fair amount of thought, haven’t you?”

“I am Praetor, sir. I was not chosen for my impulsiveness or inability to strategize.” Again, a few people chuckled, and Reyna waited, ready for the next question.

“Well then, who do you believe would make a decent Acting Praetor?” She found his face in the stands. He was clutching Hazel’s hand tightly. He was pale, but he nodded at Reyna, a determined look in his eyes.

“I have chosen Frank Zhang to represent New Rome as Acting Praetor while I am away.”

~

_Seven Days Earlier:_

“Do we have any idea where Jason is?” Reyna asked, sounding tired.

“No, for all I know he just ended up on the other side of the country. He could be making his way back right now.” Reyna stiffened, sensing a ‘but’ on its way.

“But?”

“But for all I know, he’s still in the Underworld.”

“You can’t tell?” Hazel shook her head.

“The abilities that I got from Pluto lie elsewhere. I can sense when a person passes, but beyond that I can’t pick out souls from the Underworld, that’s always been Nico’s specialty.” Hazel sounded helpless, but Reyna froze, her mind whirling. She could _finally_ see a course of action.

“Then we have to find Nico.”

“Wh--”

“Who do you trust implicitly?”

“What?”

“I’ll need to leave someone in charge. I need someone I can trust, someone I know won’t side with Octavian, who won’t go power mad, but who will accept the position.” She didn’t hardly hear her own words, in her head she was adding up the facts, cutting out those she knew couldn’t handle the job, wouldn’t agree, or would sell her out to Octavian. Dakota was out, he wouldn’t have taken the job, and she needed him to look after the fifth Legion. Twelve others were out in the same vein, the rest on Octavian’s side or too hungry for the power it would provide. She sighed.

“I--Well, Frank, to be honest.” Hazel was saying. Reyna blinked. She hadn’t even considered Zhang. He was a bit of a flight risk, unsure of his parentage, and slightly forgetful, but if she looked hard enough Reyna could see that he was honest and had a heart of gold. He was one of the few people who got along naturally with Aurum and Argentum, and he was more than trustworthy. He also disliked Octavian nearly as much as Reyna herself did, which was a plus. She trusted Hazel, as well.

Maybe it was because she was alive because of Hazel, but as Reyna thought over her words, she realized that, despite his bumbling exterior, Frank Zhang was truly a candidate for the Praetorship.

“Very well. Hazel, I need you to come with me.”

“Reyna!” Hazel called, finally pulling Reyna’s attention over to her. “Don’t you think that this is going rather fast?”

“Jason has been missing for two weeks, Hazel, it will take one more for me to formally call a senate meeting, in another few after that, Octavian will be able to begin campaigning for the Praetorship, and I can only delay him for so long before he can gain enough allies to swing the vote at the end of next month. If Jason’s been in the Underworld, then the gods only know how long it’s been for him.” She sighed. “I need you on my side for this.” Hazel closed her eyes, and her posture flowed from nervous to resigned.

“Fine. What do I do?”

~~

“Frank Zhang?” Octavian sneered. “The boy does not even know his godly parent!”

“And since when have we cared so much about that? Not knowing his godly parentage does not make him less of a person, and it may even keep his head clear in more... difficult affairs.”

“For example?”

“If a quest is issued, he can choose campers based upon merit, and who is most suited rather than those he feels obligated to helping by relation alone.” She looked directly at Octavian, making him hold her gaze. “Or by choosing those he knows he can bribe.” She turned her eyes back to Frank. “After careful observation, I have realized that he is the most capable person available for this job. I move for immediate enforcement and action.” Never let it be said that Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano did not know how to get straight to her point. She shut her eyes briefly. To the spectators in the arena, it would appear as though she’d merely blinked. This was it; the moment of truth. When she opened her eyes again, she was completely composed and prepared for either answer. “Those in favor of myself and Hazel Levesque going to search for Jason grace and leaving Frank Zhang as acting Praetor?” The first to raise his hand was the Lar that oversaw the fifth Legion. One by one, the other members of the senate, and then the camp raised their hands, until, an eternity later, only two hands were still down. Hers (she couldn’t vote on her own motion, of course) and Octavian’s, whose lack of a vote she’d more than accounted for. She allowed relief to settle on her shoulders. “Majority rules, then. We leave at dawn, if anyone else has a matter that they wish to discuss, please bring it forward now.” No one moved. “Very well, Census dismissed.”

 

“I still don’t know why Reyna picked _me_.” Frank said, his shoulders hunched slightly in confusion. His back was to Reyna as she approached, and were it any other conversation, she would not have spoken, but he was Praetor, now, if only for a while, and he needed to understand. She needed to know that he understood.

“Because Hazel trusts you, Frank, as well as for all of the reasons I put forward in the Senate meeting.” Reyna said. Frank jumped at her words, his face flushing slightly. “And, I trust Hazel. I believe that this solution will be best for everyone. But you do know that you don’t have to do this?”

“I know.” He conceded. “But I’m going to. Especially now.” His face darkened and she knew he was thinking of the verbal jabs Octavian had slung at him during the meeting.

“Thank you, Frank.” There were other words that she could say, that she wanted to say, but instead of making another speech (one a day really was her limit), she tried to convey them all through that one expression of gratitude. He smiled at her and she knew that Frank didn’t actually need to hear them.

And in any case, there wasn’t time for all that. She and Hazel had work to do. They had a very long journey ahead of them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea if the Senate is actually run like that so don't sue me if it's not.  
> If you catch any errors please let me know here in the comments or on my tumblr @scarletwix!


	6. Colpo Di Scena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you hear that?  
> That is the sound of LIFE KICKING ME IN THE ASS.  
> In other words, I started university this year. And I'm done with my first semester. Now I'm on winter break, So I should be able to get more chapters out before class starts up again. In fact, The next one should be up later tonight. It will be significantly longer so there's that.  
> This chapter is dedicated to those anonymous comments that hoped I'd update soon (SORRY!) as well as to [ arielrosemaria ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/arielrosemaria/pseuds/arielrosemaria) for giving me the final (most recent) push to finish typing this chapter. Thanks for not giving up on me.  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> There wasn't much to edit grammar/spelling wise, but I did add some more detail to Jason's internal monologue, because it dawned on me that it isn't a believable Jasico fic without some decent Oblivious!Jason Grace pining in it.

In the days that followed, Jason and Nico fell into a sort of routine. They would meet each other and go down to Asphodel to keep the ghosts company. After a few days of dancing around each other without a meeting place, Nico, upon finding Jason after running around each other for what felt like hours, grabbed Jason by the arm and dragged him to the Fontana.

“For Hades’ sake, meet me here from now onwards.” Nico sighed. There was a forced lilt to his words, and Jason looked more closely at him. His shoulders were drawn back tighter than a bowstring and his eyes wouldn’t _quite_ meet Jason’s.

“What is this place?” Jason asked, trying to alleviate the tension.

"I'm not sure," Nico said, and something in his tone made Jason wonder if it wasn’t the entire truth. There were carvings in the stone base of the fountain in the center of the room, of a family, a woman and her two children. Hades’ distinct visage made an appearance in a few of the carvings, and in every single one the woman and children looked happy. Jason thought that the carving of the youngest, a boy, bore more than a passing resemblance to Nico, but he kept his mouth shut. Nico continued, his eyes locked on the statues in the middle, the woman and eldest child, a girl wearing a cap and a jacket. "I think it reminds my father of his time in Italy, though I've only seen him here once."

"Huh." There was more to it, Jason could tell. But he wasn't going to pry.

Today, as usual, he found Nico waiting for him. However, his demeanor was more hesitant, and the way his eyes flickered over to Jason and away again seemed almost guilty.

"Ready to go?" Jason asked haltingly. Nico shook his head.

"I can't today, Jason, but I thought…"

"Thought what?" Nico scrubbed his hand across his face.

"I have to go investigate an unnatural amount of monster activity. I don't know how long I will be gone."

Oh. Jason felt his heart drop to somewhere in the vicinity of his stomach. He was incredibly disappointed. His walks with Nico had become the highlight of his days. He knew, rationally, that the boy had a life, and should spend more time in the mortal world than in the Underworld, but he wanted-

He wasn’t sure what he wanted.

He wanted to go back to the mortal world, but he also wanted to do right by Reyna and finish out his sentence.

And his gut was telling him that he wanted Nico to be there, either way.

"Well, You've got to do your job, right?"

"Yeah." Nico didn't look too pleased about it. He hesitated, like he wanted to say more.

"So what are you waiting for? The faster you leave the sooner you can come back, right?" Jason felt his cheeks warm as he spoke the last sentence. It seemed like such a personal thing to say. Nico smiled, and Jason felt his heart clench oddly in his chest. "Go on, then. Shoo." Jason made the proper shooing motions with his hands. Nico lingered in the doorway, his hand on his sword, and a look on his face that spoke of wanting to say more.

"I'll be back soon."

"I'll hold you to that." Nico dissolved into shadows, and Jason let the smile melt off his face.

He told himself that the hollow feeling his chest was jealousy. Jealousy that Nico got to leave and Jason still couldn't, but he knew what jealousy felt like. He had no idea what this feeling was. He had no idea what any of that had been about.

 

His feet took him to the gates of the castle and he stopped. It didn't feel right. Jason frowned. There was that feeling again, the odd hollowness in his chest, the lingering feeling that something was missing. He turned around and went back into the palace.

He wandered around for an indeterminate amount of time, doing an about-face and picking a different direction every time he found himself going to the doors of the Fontana room.

On his third (fourth?) circuit of the palace, he heard a voice singing softly. The language was soft and unrecognizable to Jason's ears and the melody floated around him wrapping him in a cocoon, he wanted to sleep. He wanted to go to sleep and not wake up until Nico returned. Absently, Jason found himself following the voice. The singing stopped as he rounded the corner.

"Come in, won't you?" Proserpina’s-- no Persephone's-- voice once again floated through the door.

Jason hesitated, but you don't refuse a summons from a goddess, especially if she's married to the God of death.

Jason entered the room warily, recognizing it as the weird bejeweled pomegranate room he had seen on his first day. The one with the replica of the sun. The shelving had been pushed to one side to make room for what looked like two lawn chairs. Persephone lounged in one, sunbathing in a short sundress patterned with strawberries, and a large straw hat adorned with an incredibly garish bow. She smiled welcomingly at him and Jason forced himself not to look at the toolbox that he knew was over in the corner, but he could sense whatever was inside of it. It seemed to be calling to him even more strongly than before.

Persephone waved him over to the chair beside her. Jason took this as his chance to really look around the room. The room was large and circular and, now that Persephone was here, it was alive, bright and vibrant, filled with different plants and what appeared to be a small sun in the middle, right above Persephone's head.

"I used to hate your father, you know." She remarked, as easily as someone commenting on how chilly autumn was. Jason was slightly taken aback at her honesty.

"Then we do have something in common." Persephone flashed a smile.

"That's the spirit! Of course, I couldn't stay mad at him for long, family is family after all. And when he gave me a slice of the sky," she gestured to the glowing orb above her, "how could I keep hating him?"

"Grit your teeth and power through?" Persephone laughed.

"No. It is not in my nature to hold a grudge, Jason Grace." Jason supposed that made sense. Spring was the time of rebirth and second chances, after all.

"So what is this place?" Persephone smiled at him.

"This is my little garden. Despite the lack of the sun, the underworld is a fantastic place to grow plants. The soil is rich in nutrients as well as precious gems. This piece of the sky from your father brings everything else that I need in order to continue growing my plants." There was silence for a moment as she waved over to a rosebush, and it began to grow, the yellow and pink blossoms opening and stretching toward her outstretched fingertips. "I used to resent Nico as well." She continued, much more quietly.

"What? Why?"

"I figured that he had to be horrible. He was the product of my husband's infidelity, as such I found it difficult to care for him. But after the death of his sister… After I saw how much he cared for his friends at the Battle of Manhattan-” Persephone sighed. "The poor boy was all alone. As I mentioned, I cannot hold grudges. I like to think that we've grown close over the years."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"I'm not sure. Perhaps it's just been awhile since I've had someone new to talk to. Maybe because Nico might listen to you if he was told the people down here care about his continued survival." There was a slight tilt to her voice. Jason was trying to formulate a reply what her brow furrowed. "Something is wrong." She walked over the shelves that were scattered tools, each and every one of them in a place outside of the bright red toolbox. She opened the toolbox and her eyes widened, her breath came in a short, choked gasp. She slammed the toolbox shut "I need to speak to Hades." She said hurriedly, walking to the door. She stopped as she passed Jason, as if only now remembering he was there.

"You should probably return to your room, Jason."

"But, wait, what's happening?" Her shift in demeanor had darkened the room, he felt dread coiling up from his stomach to twist and curl around his heart.

"I don't know yet. With any luck, it's something minor. However…" She marched over to him and lifted his chin so he was staring directly into her eyes.

"You will find your Nectar on your bed next to some Ambrosia."

"Ambros--what?”

"Eat it if you are injured. Do you Romans know nothing? "She shook her head, irritated and stepped back. "And if Nico comes back, then protect him at all costs."

"Why would Nico come back? He's working!"

"I must go to my husband now."

"Lady Persephone!" But she was already gone. The dread caught fire in his heart, and he took off running. Anything that upset a goddess couldn't be good.

Within minutes he was inside his room, flipping his coin to sword form and back again, straining his ears for sounds of battle. Finally, he heard a noise, like a. He looked up and saw Nico standing in the doorway. Jason almost set himself breathe a sigh of relief, until he saw the blood seeping through Nico's shirt and dripping from his fingers. Jason dropped the sword to the ground with a _CLANG_ that rebounded off of the walls in a million echoes and rushed forward, catching Nico before he could fall.

"Nico, what happened? Are we under attack?” Nico shook his head with a grunt, he opened his mouth to speak and a moan of pain escaped. Finally, Jason's instincts took over. A lifetime of battles combating the voice in Jason's head that was just repeating "blood, too much blood, why is Nico bleeding this isn't right." He laid Nico on his bed and tore his ripped and bloodied shirt open, revealing a long jagged cut that was slowly turning green around the edges. Jason sucked in a breath and sincerely wished he was a child of Apollo, then, or even a Legacy, like Octavian.

"Ambrosia…" Nico croaked, "in…" Another moan cut him off. Jason went to his bed, where he had left the square of food that Persephone said would be Ambrosia but, to Jason, looked more like one of Reyna’s lemon cakes. Jason stumbled back over to Nico, using his knees to support Nico’s head and shoving a quarter of the cake into his mouth.

As Jason watched, the green disappeared from the wound, and some of the life returned to Nico. To Jason's dismay, however, blood was still leaking from the wound.

"Gods, Nico you're still bleeding." Jason whispered, trying to apply pressure to the wound. "Should I give you more--” Nico shook his head sharply.

"Any more and I could combust." He croaked. "Don't worry, not going to die." Jason grimaced, wishing he had a way to mix a unicorn draught. That, he knew, would stop the bleeding instantly.

"Nico, you're bleeding out, the wound may even have reached your heart." Nico looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, an inexplicable smile coming to his face.

"I'm going to be fine. I've come back from worse."

"Nico, I am being completely serious, if the wound hit your heart--” Nico made a frustrated noise.

"It can’t hit my heart, Jason. That requires having a heart to hit."

"What?" Jason asked, finally meeting Nico's eyes.

"I don't have heart Jason. I haven't had one for years."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Actually really nervous about how I ended this chapter. This is been the plan all along, but a while ago I got kind of nervous about whether or not it was good. But then I realized, that I have to finish whether or not people like what I've done. So, anyway, if anyone is still reading this, there will be a significant number of new updates in the coming weeks.  
> As always, you can find me/yell at me at my tumblr @scarletwix!  
> Also, extremely glad I looked back over this. I wrote most of it with a text-to-speech program and wow, you couldn't understand the majority of what Persephone was saying.  
> Like holy shit.  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> I still missed... so much... like there were sentences where I didn't even know what was going on. How did ya'll decipher it?


	7. The One With The Girls (And Leo, Too. Sort Of)

Reyna sucked in a breath, arching her back up off the ground and trying to force air back into her lungs. To her left, She could hear Hazel fighting off no less than three [Hippalectryon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippalectryon). A fourth stalked towards Reyna, keening out a victory scream. Reyna waited, allowed it to get closer and closer, waited until it had reared up on its hind legs before rolling out from underneath it, and drawing her sword once she was back on her feet. Her anger became a wordless cry, as she sliced her sword up underneath the Hippalectryon’s neck. She did not wait for it to explode into dust before turning her eyes upon the next enemy. The three remaining Hippalectryon had circled around Hazel, and the girl in question was clutching an arm to her chest. The Hippalectryon had yet to attack again, because Hazel was focusing on hollowing out the ground beneath their hooves, making it impossible for them to advance. Reyna could see that her friend was tiring fast, but in her haste to keep the Hippalectryon at bay, Hazel isolated herself onto an island of earth with plunging ravines all around her. The Hippalectryon hadn’t been able to make an aerial attack because of the thickness of the tree branches overhead. Hazel stumbled, still resolutely clutching her arm to her chest, and it occurred to Reyna that the Hippalectryon had probably bitten into it when they first attacked.

"Hang on, Hazel. I'll figure something out." Reyna said through gritted teeth. She knew her friend wouldn't be able to hear her, but saying so made it feel more true.

The Hippalectryon had dropped on them from above as they passed through a break in the tree line, their powerful voices stunning both Reyna and Hazel as they attacked. The girls, rendered momentarily unconscious, had been unable to stop the initial attack. As it was, they were barely holding their own now. Reyna gripped the tree beside her a little bit tighter. Hazel let out a sharp cry, and stumbled back from one of the Hippalectryon.

As Reyna observed her surroundings, panic began to overwhelm her. She could feel Hazel's strength weakening, and Hazel herself stumbled to her knees. In desperation, Reyna grabbed hold of the tree beside her and hoisted herself into its branches. As quickly as she could manage without falling, Reyna crawled over to where the branch ended, just above Hazel. Sheathing her sword, Reyna dropped down next to Hazel and immediately placed a hand on her shoulder. Praying to her mother for guidance, Reyna sent some of her strength into the younger girl. She felt Hazel's helplessness, her fear and desperation to find and save her brother, her stubborn dedication to push away the feeling that it was already too late for Nico. With a gasp, Reyna pulled away. She was afraid it hadn't been enough, but Hazel was already standing again. Reyna pulled out her sword, and, as Hazel collapsed the earth underneath the three Hippalectryon, she drove its blade through each of their bodies in turn sending them back to Tartarus before they had time to let loose another stunning screech. Reyna moaned and collapsed to the ground.

"Let's never travel by foot again." She sighed.

"Agreed." Hazel laughed.

A few hours later, they came across a town that Reyna almost wished was small, due to the overwhelming number of people that they initially encountered. Reyna sighed, large groups were not her strong suit. However, if Reyna were looking on the positive side of things, she would have to acknowledge that it would be much harder for monsters to attack in such a large town.

"Where do we go now?" Hazel asked. Reyna shrugged.

"For now, let's find a place to sit.”

They walked for a while, before stumbling upon a place that was shaded and offered seating outdoors. They sat there in silence for a few moments before Hazel finally spoke again.

"Thank you, for saving me back there, I mean."

"I've never been to New Mexico before." Reyna remarked, deflecting the conversation. She didn't want to speak of it. People didn't normally take kindly to knowing that their strength was a matter of her opinion. Or so they thought.

"Reyna, I mean it. You saved both of our lives. Just, allow me to show my gratitude okay?" Reyna nodded, accepting Hazel's thanks.

"Now, what's our next step?"

"I was thinking that we would stay here for the night, and try to get our bearings." Hazel's hand twitched on the table, but she nodded in agreement.

"That's probably the best idea." If Reyna were Jason, she might try to make some sort of joke here. But she wasn't, and that was the whole point of this quest. They found a little bookshop that closed up at six and hid behind various shelves, hoping that the closing shift wouldn’t notice them. For once, it seemed that luck was on their side. Hazel slumped down onto a soft leather couch and started snoring immediately. Reyna curled up on a chair opposite and let the lingering feeling of calm that always came with a bookstore lull her to sleep as well.

That night, for the first time in a while, Reyna didn't dream. She wasn't sure if the gods were taking pity on her, or if her time in the underworld had damaged her in some way, but after a full night of sleep, she certainly wasn't complaining. Unfortunately, Hazel had not been so lucky. Halfway through the night, her frightened gasps had woken Reyna just in time to watch as her friend shot straight up off of the couch, gasping and sobbing about her brother, about flesh wounds and Jason Grace.

When she had calmed down enough, Reyna begged her to explain the details of the dream. Reyna sat cross legged on the table in front of the couch, with Hazel opposite her, so that the other girl had no choice but to look at Reyna while she spoke.

"I was in the pavilion, back at camp. When I saw Nico in the distance, he didn't seem to be moving, but for a moment I just thought he was looking out across the city. Then, out of nowhere, he's right next to me and he is still not moving. I reached out to grab his arm, but when I touched him, we were suddenly somewhere else. A forest below a hill, I think, walking up the hill. He looked over to me and said ‘Hazel, this is a safe place for demigods, don't worry, no harm will come to you here.’” Hazel fought back a fresh wave of tears. “That was- that was exactly what he told me when he brought me to Camp Jupiter.” Reyna waited for Hazel to catch her breath.

“Go on.” She prompted, and Hazel nodded, sniffling.

“When we reached the top of the hill it was just a farm. Just a strawberry farm. But out of nowhere jumped this horrible looking monster, with-with fangs, and a goat leg and her other leg was made of bronze, I think, and- and she slashed Nico right through the chest. He disappeared, Reyna. I think he might be dead." She punctuated this sentence with a wail, and Reyna lurched forward, looping her arm around the younger girl’s shoulders in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

"You can't feel him?"

"Nico's energy has always been different. Some days, I was lucky to feel it even when he was standing right next to me. Besides, you know life energy isn't my specialty." Hazel's hopelessness was coming off her in droves, and Reyna feared what would happen if she kept thinking like this.

"He's alive, and I'm willing to bet that he's with Jason.” Hazel looked up at Reyna with wide eyes. "If anyone can keep him alive, it's Jason."

"What makes you say that?"

"When you first woke up, you were saying something about Nico and Jason being covered in blood. That Jason couldn't save him. I think that if we find Nico, then we find Jason."

"Really? Are you sure?" She could hear the excitement edging back into Hazel’s voice, the helplessness ebbing away. No, Reyna  was not at all sure. But she had to keep hope, for the both of them.

“I think that our plan to find Nico in order to determine Jason’s fate is more plausible now than ever.” She said instead. It was only half of an answer, but it seemed to do the trick.

Hazel straightened her back, a fierce determined look in her eyes.

"Then we have to find them. And soon."

"Do you remember the name of that strawberry farm?" Hazel nodded. "Then we must go find it."

"How are we meant do that?"

"I was thinking we could do things the easy way."

Reyna couldn’t tell if Hazel was disappointed that the ‘easy way’ was googling it at the internet cafe they’d sat at the night before, but she didn’t say anything.

Hazel had googled “Delphi Strawberry Service” and had an address before Reyna had even had a chance to blink at the name.

"Delphi Strawberry Service?"

“Apparently."

"Why is a strawberry service safe place for demigods?"

"Who knows?" Hazel asked, pushing away from the table. "But if Nico says it is, I'm willing to trust him."

"Where is it?" Reyna asked leaning forward to peer at the screen.

"Long Island."

"New York?"

“Yeah.” Reyna whistled.

"Then we really need to hurry."

They caught the first bus out using the Mist to make it look like they had bus passes. The bus ride was long and hot, as the bus had no air conditioning, and out of sheer boredom, Reyna called Argentum to her side. She found herself murmuring to the dog, her fingers running across his smooth back, updating him on everything that the pair had discovered. It was about an hour into the ride that Argentum began to growl. The other passengers began to look over, as if suddenly realizing that the large metal dog was there. Reyna hummed quietly, in an attempt to keep his growls at bay, but as they proceeded, Argentum began to growl more and more loudly. Finally, the bus driver looked back and glared at Reyna. He told her in no uncertain terms to quiet their dog or get off the bus. Argentum’s growls had made Reyna uneasy, as he never growled unless trouble was nearby. Deciding to heed Argentum's warnings, Reyna and Hazel exited the bus and allowed the dog to lead them forward.

Reyna quickly became glad that the bus had dropped them off close to where they needed to go, because the longer she spent walking through the dunes that made up the back roads of New Mexico, the more she wished she was back on the bus. Eventually, she and Hazel came across what appeared to be a large yellow school bus sitting in front of what appeared to be a museum.

"Does that bus say the _Wilderness school_?" Hazel asked with a snort. "Yeah, definitely a place I want to send _my_ children."

"Maybe it's another camp?" Reyna said absently. Something was in the air, something strange, something she recognized.

Reyna hurried forward, through the doors of the museum and out to the back. There, she saw a group of young students screaming in fear.

"Stay cool, kiddies!" A short man yelled through a megaphone, "Things are going to be just fine!" For some reason, the megaphone was altering the short man’s voice, making every other word sound like Jar Jar Binks. “The cow says moo!” He shouted as Reyna and Hazel rushed past. Reyna hoped that was just the megaphone, and judging by the look of pure consternation on his face as he turned from them to the megaphone, Reyna figured she was right.

The kids didn't listen. Through a pair of glass doors, Reyna could see what was happening outside. Two of the kids were trapped outside with what appeared to be a much taller man with a gun. One, the boy, was knocked unconscious, and a girl stood above him obstinately blocking him from the man. Without a second thought, Reyna and Hazel drew their swords, and crashed through the doors. The man looked up, and Reyna felt her eyes widen as the Mist illusion cleared away. Her feet faltered and she nearly fell to her knees.

Before her stood a creature she recognized. His broad shoulders supported arms that were currently holding a large broadsword over his head. he grinned over at her, as if realizing the first time that she was there as well. His body length ears swung, brushing the ground, as he whipped his head around to face her. He growled out a laugh.

"Looks like I get the pleasure of killing you twice! It must be my birthday!" Reyna would've said something, really, except her eyes were locked on the broadsword clenched in his fist. She could somehow conjure up the half second of memory from before she died, the cold feel of its steel as it pushed its way through her torso and down into the ground. Her voice choking off into a ragged gasp, her eyes locking on Jason’s form as he was quickly overwhelmed by monsters, her last thought echoed, her own voice taunting her from beyond the grave: _I’ve failed them all_.

Off guard such as she was, she didn't quite realize that he was making his way towards her until he was throwing his fist toward her face. She barely managed to duck out of the way in time, rolling under his outstretched arm and kicking him squarely in the back of his knees. She heard a breathless laugh come from beside her and turned to see the girl standing beside her, now conscious, friend.

"Looks like I've learned from my mistakes." Reyna hissed back, turning to the creature once again. The creature roared in anger and marched forward again.

Hazel, perfect soul that she was, chose that particular moment to call up from the ground what appeared to be bars of silver. She manipulated these bars into metal rods, weaving them seamlessly around the monster’s legs and trapping him. Outraged, the monster threw his sword into the ground, causing it to split beneath them. Beside Reyna, the other girl screamed as her balance was upset to the point where she went tumbling towards the edge of the canyon. Lunging forward, Reyna grabbed her and used their combined momentum to spin the girl back towards safety.

As Reyna pushed the girl away from the edge of the cliff, she realized that her momentum had carried her farther than she'd anticipated. Her foot was caught halfway off the edge, and, as she shoved the girl away, the force pushed her back and over it. In a desperate attempt, she threw her body forward, reaching out to try and catch herself. She felt her chin connect with the edge of the cliff as she slid down, the force of the blow knocking her teeth together painfully. Her hands scrambled for purchase on the sheer cliff face, and the rock grabbed at her hands and arms, scraping them raw, until finally her fingers closed around an outcropping of rock, and she froze.

She realized something in that moment: she was scared. She was absolutely terrified, because she remembered dying. She remembered the sudden feeling of having a hole torn through her chest, how one second she'd been whole and invigorated and the next she'd been on her knees and terrified. She remembered the pain, the sadness, the fear and the _anger_ , rising up inside her chest to escape in one last gasping sob.

She really didn't want to die again. She shut her eyes and pressed her face into the stone, trying her hardest to keep from trembling and losing her grip.

"Can you reach?" Came a sudden voice calling down to her. She looked up and saw the girl the ridiculous girl she'd just saved, hanging half over the cliff with her arms stretched out towards Reyna. "Leo's got my legs, can you reach me?" Reyna shook her head; she couldn't let go. As the girl spoke again, a wave of absolute calm washed over her. "Everything is going to be okay," the girl crooned, "I've got you, I won't let you fall." Reyna clenched her teeth together, focusing on how much she wanted to believe this girl and reached an arm up to her, clasping her wrist and feeling her grip Reyna's own. "Good, now the other one." Reyna repeated the action, hooking her feet into the rock and letting the girl help hoist her up. She let go of the girls' hands and pushed down against the stone, hooking a leg up and over the edge and rolling as far away from it as possible. She was breathing hard and she barely felt the girl pressing her fingertips into her forehead and brushing away wayward strands of hair.

"Reyna, I don't know how much longer this will hold him-" Hazel called, and as the last word rung out, the monster flexed his arms and the silver shattered. One piece knocked the boy--Leo--in the head and he dropped down onto the ground, again. The girl rushed to his side, leaving his focus solely on Reyna.

"I'll make sure to kill you properly this time," he growled. Reyna staggered to her feet, seeing the silver strands snaking over to him again.

"I really don't think you will." She growled back as the silver sharpened and stabbed through his legs, immobilizing him completely, this time. Reyna took this for the distraction it was meant as and gathered the last of her strength, running forward and stabbing her sword straight through his chest, just as he had done to her. His roar of pain became his last words, and he blew into ashes between Reyna's feet.

"I told you so." She gasped just before she passed out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S NOT MIDNIGHT SO THIS STILL COUNTS AS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE  
> am I forgiven yet? you know, for dropping off the face of the planet for __four months?  
>  happy holidays everybody, and I hope you have a better new year than this one was (no matter how good this year was for you)  
> the guy that killed Reyna initially was a corrupted [Panotii](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panotti) and she got closure!! Lookit that!!! Forward plot development!! OH MY GOD?  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> added more description, blah blah blah, you know the drill  
> @scarletwix on tumblr if it doesn't make sense! I'm really thinking that it's starting to pull together!


	8. The Time of Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the first of the three day update fiasco is here!! (Y'all can keep on thanking Gawain for that btw)  
> Gawain, whoever you are, this chapter and the one I'll post tomorrow are both for you.  
> I hope I don't disappoint!  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> I CHANGED SO MUCH IN THIS CHAPTER IF YOU RE-READ ONE OF THE CHAPTERS BECAUSE OF THE EDITS LET IT BE THIS ONE OKAY  
> (I like it a lot better now omg)  
> This chapter is still dedicated to Gawain, though, if they're still reading.

As Jason waited outside of his bedroom, a million and one thoughts raced through his head.

_How was Nico?_

_Was he actually dying?_

_What did he mean he doesn’t have a heart?_

After Nico's earth shattering revelation, Persephone had burst into the room and told Jason in no uncertain terms to _get out_. Jason would've argued, if he hadn't met her eyes and seen them full of wild fear. He glanced, then, at Nico and over to Hades who had appeared next to Persephone, likely being the one to sense his son’s energy ebbing away. He didn’t want to leave; still unsure Nico would be okay.

He seen something in Lord Hades eyes that had made him flinch, showing Jason that, of all the gods, he was the most protective of his children.

He left the room expecting to pace alone for however long it took for Persephone to find what she was looking for, but Hades followed Jason out and stood patiently beside the door.  Jason mimicked him on the other side, and they waited, silent sentinels for Persephone to emerge.

Jason tried to stop his thoughts from running to Nico, tried to go to the trancelike focused state he could sometimes maintain while watching the gates of camp Jupiter. He might have succeeded, too if it weren’t for the fact that he kept seeing the unnatural shine in Nico’s eyes, his pallor, closer to death than it ever looked in the days they had spent together in the underworld.

He saw the flash of red as Nico had collapsed, his bloodied hand reaching out for balance.

His ears rang with the sound Nico's ragged breathing, and his throat clogged with fear, his hands twitching, aching for the familiar weight of a sword or a javelin.

He pushed away from the wall, his restless thoughts pushing his feet to move, his hands to do something.  He realized with a jolt that he wanted to find whatever monster had done this to Nico, wanted to slice it to ribbons, banish it to Tartarus for so long that it would forget it ever came to the surface in the first place.

The force of his anger surprised him, but he supposed it made sense.  He’d always felt a fierce need to protect his friends, but something gnawed at him.  Even with Reyna, his oldest friend, he he’d only a slight desire for revenge, and a stronger overpowering guilt, and desire to save her, bring her back by any means necessary.

So what was this?

He stopped pacing as the door finally hissed open, and Persephone, either not wanting or not caring enough to glamour herself, emerged, her hair sticking in four different directions, blood coating her hands and the front of her sundress, turning the pattern of strawberries into something dark and horrifying.  She looked Jason in the eyes and it chilled him to the bone.  He was certain she was learning all of his deepest secrets.

"I think that we need to talk."  She said, and her eyes shone with something nameless, and Jason was afraid.

"You're probably right, and I trust your judgement, of course, but-"

"Nico will still be there when we are done."

"Yes, ma'am."

As they walked back to Persephone's garden Jason went over all of the topics that he and Persephone might have to talk about.  He wondered about Nico's final words to him, if they truly had been his last, he wondered about the bloodlust that he felt when he thought of Nico bleeding out in his arms, that insatiable desire for revenge. His heart felt heavy, beneath the anger, his throat closing with an overwhelming sense of grief.

He wondered about his irrational fear that Nico, the closest to death he had ever come, might truly have succumbed to it.

He wondered what it was that Persephone wished to speak with him about.

Jason was still full of that restless energy when they returned to Persephone’s garden. He eyed the chair that he’d occupied only hours before and knew that he wouldn’t be able to sit in it without leaping to his feet again. Persephone settled into her own seat and took a deep breath. With a flick of her wrist the blood stains were gone, and they both breathed more easily.

“Will Nico be okay?” He didn’t know if he had permission to speak, didn’t even realize he _was_ speaking until the words were already out of his mouth. Persephone surveyed him, and he got the feeling that she saw something in him that he didn’t know himself. At length, she gave him a small smile.

“Yes, Jason, he will be fine.” Jason felt relief surge through him and chase out the remaining anxiety. He finally sank into the chair, his legs trembling with the after-effects of his fear.

“Can I see him?”

“In a while. His father, Lord of the Dead though he may be, still dreads the day that his children will join him. I suspect he’s feeling much like you are. It is odd-” She trailed off, but it was clear she wasn’t speaking to him. “Initially, Nico’s injury wasn’t what I sensed.” She shook her head. “Never mind, it was probably a coincidence.” Jason’s brow furrowed, confused by her comparison of himself to Hades, and Persephone’s odd soliloquy, but Persephone was watching him normally, as though she hadn’t said something strange at all.

Persephone smiled at him, and Jason wondered if running was an option.  But he had questions, and a small sense of self-preservation, so, instead, he asked the questions he knew she was waiting for him to ask.

"Nico..." He began, "said something odd earlier."  Persephone just kept looking at him, and he knew he’d have to speak his mind if he wanted to get any answers.  "He told me that he didn't a heart.  I mean, there's no way he doesn't have a heart, right? Like, he was being figurative wasn't he?  And delirious from blood loss and exhaustion?" Jason could hear a slight amount of desperation in his own voice, and he was aware that he was reaching, but there are some things that were hard for even him to believe.  Persephone drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair.

"There was a time before I was a goddess, you know."  She said.

"Wh--" she gave him a look that meant he was not to interrupt.

"There was a time before I was a goddess," Persephone began again, "I was called Chloris, then, and I took that time and used it to learn what it meant to be human. I fell in and out of love, I learned magic and had my heart broken. Not necessarily in that order. I watched humanity and I nearly gave up my birthright as goddess to lead a mortal life."

She smiled at Jason's shocked expression. "Nearly.  But just before I went through with it, I had my heart broken the most horrible way."

Persephone pressed her fingers to her collarbone absentmindedly.  "But," she continued, "that is a story for a different day."

"Jason, I want you to know that I was in a very dark place, then."  Jason nodded.  He wanted her to explain more, but he could see that she didn't want to talk about it.  "And that is when I made my first trip to the underworld."  Jason couldn't stop himself from speaking.

"But--"

"Oh, I know what you thought."  She said, waving her hand dismissively.  "Hades didn't kidnap me, didn't force me against my will, he even tried to make me leave more than once.” She leaned in like she was about to share her deepest secret. “I’m afraid he found me a little irritating.” She straightened, beaming. “But I'm sure you've noticed that time moves differently in the underworld.  I’d been down there for several years, and no time at all, from my perspective.  And the longer I stayed away the worse things got for humanity."  She spread her hands and smiled as if to say 'sorry about that.'

"It was a while before Hades found me, even, as it was still early on his reign and he still very much resented that this was his lot.  He couldn't yet sense disturbances like a runaway goddess, and before he found me, I had learned my way around the underworld.  I'd snuck into Elysium and the Fields of Punishment, I'd bribed the Furies and gotten to know more about this realm than I suspect even Hades himself knows now.” She paused.

"And I met a woman, a...” She cocked her head to the side, as if looking at the pomegranate tree in front of her would help her think of the word she wanted to say. “Let’s call her a priestess. She offered to help me."

"To help you get over your heartbreak?" Jason prompted. Persephone smiled grimly.

"I never said that.  But, she taught me a great many things.  Taught me about myself and about the world at large."  Persephone seemed to be seeing something outside of the room, as if she’d actually managed to transport herself back in time, to that other day and age, still in the underworld, but long before herself.  "She taught me magic.  Basic things, at first, distractions.  How to turn a man into a beast, how to keep the fire burning forever, to love myself and make others love me.  Oh, don't look so surprised.  Many gods have had lovers of the same gender orientation, your father included."  Jason made a face, ignoring the fact that he absolutely knew that and preferred not to think about it, and wondering for half of a moment, why he’d thought of Nico when she said that before pushing all thoughts away with a grimace.

"Please move the conversation in a different direction." He begged. Persephone laughed and obliged.

"The last thing that she taught me was a bit of supremely old magic.  I suspect it was taught to Hecate herself by the Great Lady, Rhea."

"Right."  Jason prompted, again. He had guessed that the spell she spoke of had something to do with Nico's heart, and was simultaneously eager and not sure he was really willing to hear more.

"This woman could sense that my heartache was still plaguing me, and she taught me a way to end that pain while still living." She sighed.  "It is a very dangerous spell, Jason. One that can only be performed on one whose heart is both pure and broken.  And-- well, it might just be easier to show you."  Jason recoiled at her words and she looked confused for a moment. Then, something in his eyes must have given her a hint. Understanding dawned on her face.  "Oh! No, Jason, I'm not going to use it on you! I don’t even know that it would work!"  Jason relaxed, quite a bit relieved at her words.  She stood and walked to the shelves that held her tools.  She rummaged in her toolbox for a moment before returning with a small cloth bag.  "The spell is detailed and gruesome, I won't bore you with it, but the outcome is that the recipient can no longer feel whatever emotion the spell is modified to take away."  She shook out the contents of the bag and a small two toned gemstone dropped into her palm.  "This," she said showing to him a side that was a deep rich, red, "is Nico's ability to feel heartache. And this," she flipped the stone over, showing a side that was midnight blue, "this is his ability to die of mortal wounds."

"Well."  Was all Jason could manage.

"Yes, quite. You see, the spell gives you what you ask for, but it also comes with an added curse, just for fun."

"That doesn't sound very fun."  Jason murmured, still enraptured by the stone in Persephone's palm.

"The spell draws its power from the person it is cast on, and so needs that person to survive, but, depending on what the person has asked to be taken, and modifies itself to make sure that the bearer never wishes for the spell to be removed."

“Like a symbiotic parasite?” Jason asked, thinking back to the lessons taught to the children in Camp Jupiter. Persephone blinked, momentarily nonplussed.

“I’ve never thought of it like that, but yes, I suppose it is.”

"And what is Nico's modification? His curse?" He knew he had to ask, but he got the feeling that he didn't really want to know the answer.  

"He cannot fall in love, or the curse kills him, but not before returning his heartache to him tenfold."

Jason felt dread crawl up his spine to freeze at the back of his throat.

“Is there a way to break the curse?”

“It can be dissolved, but it varies from curse to curse, as the modifications do.” She shook her head. “I do not know how his spell can be reversed.” She sounded regretful.

"And you..." Jason swallowed, "let him do this?"

Persephone grimaced as if to say he'd understand one day.

"I didn't let him do anything.  He discovered the spell when snooping around the castle one day--he used to be an awful snoop, you know--and realized that the book it was in belonged to me.  He asked me to perform the spell on him, and I feared what he would do if I refused.  This may sound untrue given what I've just revealed to you Jason, but I care deeply for this boy, as though he were my own son.” She looked Jason straight in the eyes so that he would see how serious she was being.  “And I will do everything in my power to ensure that this curse does not kill him."

The crazy thing was, was that Jason believed her.

He looked away from the stone and Persephone put it back in the bag, and then into the toolbox.  Jason willed his eyes not to follow her movements. Persephone turned back around and her eyes fell on something behind him, her face transforming into an easy smile. Jason turned to see an exhausted looking Hades glaring at him.

Though that may have just been his default expression.

Persephone crossed the room and brushed her fingertips against his arm. Hades’ eyes fell shut and he leaned into her palm. Jason quietly got up and edged out of the room.

Which really would have been easier if Hades hadn’t been standing in the doorway.

Nevertheless, Jason managed to squeeze through what little space was left without disturbing their moment. His feet led him back to his room, and he pushed the door open, relieved beyond belief that Nico was there, that he was breathing evenly, curled up on Jason’s bed.

Jason took the chair that Hades had clearly just vacated and quietly watched the steady rise and fall of Nico’s chest, becoming more and more sure that he was still alive with each breath Nico took.

He wanted to know the Nico that had been a “snoop,” wanted him to wake up, to know that Jason saw him as one of his closest friends, now.

He wanted a lot of things, he realized.

Jason only realized he was dozing off when he fell out of the chair, jerking out of sleep as though he had been slapped and barely catching himself by huffing out a gust of wind before he hit the floor.

Wide awake with the rush of adrenaline that could only come from feeling like he was about to fall to his death, Jason turned his attention back to Nico. He inched the chair closer to the other boy, absurdly fascinated by watching his chest rise and fall with proof of life.

It was mainly because of this that Jason became aware of when Nico's breath became shallow and rapid. Jason's gaze darted up to Nico's face, Persephone's name on his lips, already half out of the chair and ready to run for help. Nico's eyes were darting back and forth rapidly beneath his eyelids, a crease forming between his eyebrows as his face twisted into a grimace.

Instead of running for the door, Jason lunged toward the bed as his friend began to thrash, caught in the throes of a nightmare that Jason could very easily relate to.

Demigod nightmares were the pits.

He caught Nico's shoulders beneath his palms, trying to hold him still so he didn't injure himself further.

"Nico!" He shouted desperately. "Nico wake up. You're safe, okay? You're with me!" Nico's eyes snapped open as his frantic movements slowed. His eyes rolled in their sockets, still seeing what had been in the dream, until they locked on Jason. Jason removed his hands from Nico's shoulders and sat back down as Nico dragged in ragged breaths to calm himself, but even as Jason moved away, Nico's gaze followed him. Jason realized that he was still talking.

"You're okay, you're fine. Everything is going to be okay."

Nico reached out with a trembling hand and gripped the fist that Jason had tangled in the sheets on the bed to keep himself from reaching out and pulling Nico into a hug, as was his instinct. Jason sat down and let Nico twist their hands together. He loosened his grip to avoid crushing Nico's hand.

"Go back to sleep, I'm here, I promise." Jason murmured. Nico nodded and shifted to his side with a wince. Jason leaned his head on top of the arm that was still resting on the bed and let his eyes drift closed. Nico would be fine. He thought. The thought became a prayer, and then a mantra as he, too drifted off to a deep sleep.

He slept for nearly ten hours EUT.

He woke slowly, more refreshed than he had in months (or what he assumed were months, anyway) with a rare sense of rightness that he associated with summer mornings, sunlight filtering through curtains, and something else he couldn’t name. He buried his face into the arm, forgetting, for another moment, where he was. He felt Nico’s steady breathing against his neck and decided that what he felt was closer to “at peace” than anything else.

And he realized a few things in very quick succession.

One: He was practically sharing a bed with Nico. Okay, kind of. Jason was still perched in the chair, but that was a technicality.

Two: He was still in the Underworld.

Three: Nico was wrapped around his arm like an octopus.

Four: He really wanted to stay that way.

And, five, the most terrifying realization of all: He was certain that Hades knew every single thing that he himself just realized, and was most likely going to come and renege on the deal he had made, and decide to just keep Jason in the Fields of Punishment for all eternity.

Okay, so the last one was an exaggeration.

Probably.

As Jason moved to stand up, he realized that Nico was curled up precariously on the edge of the bed. Their fingers were still twined together, but Nico had somehow rolled over onto Jason's arm during the night (day? Who knew what time it was) and was currently using it as a pillow. As a result, Jason's body had twisted in the chair to accommodate Nico's position, and Nico's head was resting lightly on his shoulder, the rest of his arm crooked up and being crushed in the grip that Nico's hands had him in. Jason tried to think of a natural way to move without waking Nico up, but with every passing moment, Jason realized that he had less and less feeling in his arm.

"Sorry, Nico." He whispered, trying to pull his arm away as gently as possible. Nico went with his movement, and was now part of him was being supported solely by the strength that Jason had in his arm. "Really?" He huffed, almost laughing. He moved back, pulling away from the chair and into an almost crouched position, maneuvering Nico further into the bed before he tried to pull his arm away again. All he got for his efforts was a sleepy sniffle from Nico. Nothing for it then, he decided. He breathed deeply, hoping that he wouldn't wake Nico, but knowing that his luck was nowhere near that good.

He braced himself on the balls of his feet and yanked upwards. His arm shot free and he stumbled backwards, the backs of his knees hitting the chair and upsetting his balance. He had half of a second to realize what was about to happen, and if he hadn't just woken up, and if his arm hadn't just erupted into a painful jumble of needles and blood rushing back to his fingertips, then he would have found a way to use the air around him to catch both himself and the chair.

Unfortunately, both of those things HAD happened, and that led to Jason tumbling head over teakettle to the ground with a resounding CRASH.

For a moment he hoped that he would get away with it, but Nico's head popped over the edge of the bed, blearily confused. When he took in the sight of Jason sprawled on the floor next to a chair the confusion transformed into amusement.

Jason tried not to pout visibly.

It clearly didn't work, as Nico's face transformed further, from amusement to downright glee as Jason picked himself up from the floor and dropped into a crouch next to the bed so that they were at eye level.

"Whoops." He said, sheepishly.

“They need to change your last name.”

“Oh ha ha. Don’t tell anyone at Camp Jupiter that I’m a total klutz, okay? I have an image to maintain.” He pretended to preen, and that got a smile and then a wince out of Nico. He waved off Jason’s worried look, pressing his other hand lightly against his chest.

“Did Persephone tell you? I asked her to explain.” Jason felt his expression go from _what_ to surprise that Nico was so coherent just waking up.

“About the spell?” Nico nodded, and Jason felt his chest constrict, which made sense. He was insanely relieved that Nico was okay, was alive enough to talk about this. “Yeah, she did.” Nico looked for a second like he’d eaten something sour.

“She say why?”

“I didn’t ask.”

Jason watched as an emotion akin to hope appeared in Nico’s eyes, and he felt something block his throat.

“It’s yours to tell, or not to tell, Nico. I won’t ask if you don’t want me to.” Jason had unwittingly dropped his voice into a whisper.

“Thank you.” Nico whispered back, exhaustion creeping back into his voice. Jason twisted his face into a smile.

“Go back to sleep, Nico.”

“Right, naps are good for ghost batteries.” Nico smiled at some far off memory, or a dream, and Jason wanted to follow him there.

“I’m not even going to pretend that made sense.” He said instead, before rising from the crouch he’d dropped into. “I’ll be back in a few hours to check on you.” Nico mumbled something, but Jason figured he was already half asleep again. Jason huffed out a laugh and tried to pretend that the constricting feeling he kept getting in his chest was not his heart skipping a beat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EUT- Eastern Underworld Time  
> So, there's a lot of theory in this chapter, but I wanted to get the "mechanics" of the spell down in order to avoid confusion which, i realize now, might not have happened?? Also, I wanted to show Jason denying his crush a little bit more.  
> And I really hate the more popular version of the Hades/Persephone myth where he kidnaps her because, really, like the goddess of goddamn springtime couldn't have escaped if she'd wanted to??  
> The next chapter will be the girls, and there's a lot more action in that one, because this is Reyna, and she's not trapped in the Underworld, and she GETS SHIT DONE.  
> Come yell at me for the lack of Jasico in this chapter on tumblr @scarletwix!  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> lack of jasico........... has been remedied......
> 
> if there are any mistakes (glaring or otherwise) or if you're confused on anything please tell me so i can fix it!!


	9. Please Ignore the Following Interlude, as The Gang Deals With Various Technical Difficulties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka filler chapter one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peers at update*  
> What on earth is this?

Reyna came to in what she assumed was a high school nurse's office.  She could have been completely wrong, though, as she had nothing to go off of. The closest she'd gotten to a high school nurse's office was the medical tent at camp Jupiter. This room smelled a bit like the antiseptic and sweat that permeated the medical tent, so she figured she couldn't be too far off.

She saw a man with a megaphone and the girl who'd saved her arguing heatedly. The boy who had been with them laid on the cot opposite to her, there was no sign of Hazel, though Argentum lay beside her bed, clearly keeping watch. His presence soothed her, ever so slightly. He was not a guard dog, per se. Only more of a sentry, he watched, he waited out of sight, following silently until called, and he relayed everything back to Aurum as it happened. She pushed herself up onto her forearms, fixing her face into a threatening glare. She hoped it actually came across as threatening, and not just super pathetic.

"Where is my companion?" She asked. Or, tried to ask, anyway. Her throat was dry and she wound up coughing a few times first.

"Where is my companion?" She croaked at last.

"Hazel ran to the restroom." The girl said. "Don't worry, she's fine. She’ll be annoyed that she missed you waking up, though."  Reyna felt that she could trust her. She didn't know this girl at all, but she found herself wanting to trust her, again and again. Reyna supposed that she _had_ saved her life. The girl walked over and sat on the bed Leo laid on.

"I'm Piper McLean," she patted the unconscious boy on the shoulder. "This is Leo Valdez, he's not normally asleep. You caught him on a very bad day.” Leo moaned and rolled over.

"D’you have to talk so loudly? I'm still concussed you know."

Piper ignored him.

"And that," she pointed to the megaphone wielding teacher, "is Coach Hedge. He has just gone off the deep end."

"How so?"  Reyna asked, cocking her head to one side, her glare melting as she noticed that Piper was incredibly normal.

"I'm trying to explain to these two that the monster on the Canyon--"

"His name is Arthur."  Leo put in.

"No, it wasn't."  Coach said, placing his hands on his hips looking at Leo like there were no circumstances where he was to interrupt again.  "He was a monster, a Panotii.  And he was after you because you are demigods.  I'm here to take you to back to camp and to safety, and as for you," Coach turned to Reyna, "I've never seen you before and I've half a mind to push you over the Cliff."  Reyna's hand moved to where she kept her sword.  "But you don't smell like monster, so I'm going to assume you’re a demigod, too."  Reyna sword was missing.  It was fine, she could protect herself just as well with her fists, the problem was she didn't know if Hazel really was just in the bathroom, or if they had done something to her.  "But," Coach continued "I know every demigod from camp and I've never seen you or your friend before.  I don't trust either of you, and if you try to hurt these two, I will take you down."  Reyna was having a difficult time taking him seriously. He was about two feet shorter than Reyna, and he kept waving that ridiculous megaphone at her.

"Coach!"  Piper said admonishingly.  "She and Hazel saved us, and we’re not going to push either of them into a canyon!"  She turned to face Reyna.  "Sorry about him..." She blinked.  "I'm sorry, I don’t know your name."  She seemed bewildered by this, as though she should have.

"I'm Reyna.  Have you seen my sword?"

Piper looked around with a frown.

“Uh,” Her eyes lit on something in the far corner of the nurse’s office, just out of Reyna’s line of sight. She moved to swing herself up out of the bed when Hazel returned to the room, her eyes moving immediately to where Reyna was half-sitting. Reyna felt as though she’d just been caught with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

“Oh, thank Pluto.” Hazel said, relief flooding her face. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever wake up.” Reyna hadn’t realized that she herself had been worried about Hazel until the girl was standing right before her eyes. Reyna stumbled out of the bed, feeling like a newborn faun, and forced her feet to take her to where Piper had seen her sword.

“We need to get moving.” She directed this to Hazel, who was looking at her disapprovingly again.

“Reyna, you’re not fully healed yet.” Reyna’s eyes locked on where her sword leaned against the wall and she breathed a sigh of relief. Beside her sword was propped another weapon, harsh and ugly, and nearly as long as Reyna was tall. An image of the Panotii swinging a broadsword above his head flashed, unbidden, through her mind.

She stared at it, frozen, remembering just how close she had come to dying again. She ran her tongue over her lips and breathed deeply.

She would not let this stop her from finding Jason.

She moved jerkily, still shaken, and belted her sword to her hip. After a moment’s deliberation, she took the broadsword as well, strapping it securely onto her back. It was hers now, after all. Spoils of war.

“Should you be standing already?” Piper’s voice came through her thoughts like a dream. Reyna turned to her, and saw concern in her eyes. Reyna waved away the worry.

“I’m fine. I was just a little shaken up.” Hazel and Piper shared a glance and then moved as one, dragging Reyna back to the cot. Hazel plopped down on it and patted the space next to her. Reyna rolled her eyes, but—moving carefully so as not to stab herself on her new broadsword—sat next to the daughter of Pluto. With a disapproving look, Hazel rested the back of her hand on Reyna’s forehead. Reyna, still mentally exhausted, felt herself tapping into Hazel’s energy. She saw herself momentarily, through Hazel’s eyes.

She looked _awful_. Her face was pale and waxen and there was a long gash along her right cheek. Her hair was loose from her braid and wisps flew wildly about her face.

She suddenly understood Piper’s concern.

Then she felt what Hazel was looking for. She felt her life force beating steadily alongside her heart. It was slightly rattled, and frayed around the edges, but strong, and only growing stronger.

“She’s fine.” Hazel said, begrudgingly. “Just tired.”

“We should get moving.” Reyna croaked, finding herself even more emotionally drained after the emotional impact feeling her own life force had wrought upon her.

"I literally just sat down." Leo mumbled to no one in particular.

"You've been lying down for hours." Coach pointed out. Reyna ignored them and continued, keeping her voice lowered.

"If we are going to find Di Angelo before Jason does something stupid then we have no time to waste."

"Di Angelo? You mean Nico, the Hades kid?" Coach asked, breaking into their conversation.

So much for keeping her voice lowered. She turned to glare at Coach, who continued to look incredibly confused like ‘Who would want to look for him??’

"You know him?" Hazel surged forward, clasping Coach by the shoulder. If he'd looked surprised before then, now he was downright shocked.

"Yeah, he was at camp last I was. Why are you looking for him?"

"He is my brother." Hazel said quickly, her eyes dancing at the new hope Coach had given her. "This camp, is it on Long Island?" The Coach nodded, dumbfounded. Hazel swung back to face Reyna.

"Do you know what this means?"

"Your dream was wrong?" Reyna hazarded.

"The freaky Hades kid is still alive?" Coach guessed.

"He's okay!" Hazel squealed over the both of them. "And he's not 'freaky'." She directed this last to Coach, who did a very good impression of a frightened deer at the force of her glare. He bleated nervously and Reyna narrowed her eyes.

"Are you quite sure you're human, Coach?" She asked, wondering if she'd need the broadsword sooner than expected. Coach's eyes widened, offended.

"Of course not! I'm a satyr! I don't expect anyone as uncultured as you to understand that, but satyrs have been protectors for nearly as long as there have been satyrs!" Hazel shot Reyna a Look.

"He's a faun." She said, and that made sense, now that Reyna looked at him. Coach sputtered at the word 'faun', but Reyna sheathed her sword again.

"Oh." She said, and that was the end of it. Coach grumbled for a minute, but then he seemed to get over it.

"So, you girls need to get to Camp Half-Blood?" He asked.

"Yes." Hazel said, at the same time Reyna shrugged and said,

"Probably."

"Then it only makes sense for you to tag along with us."

"'Us'?" Piper interjected. "I'm not going." She crossed her arms, and there was something in her face that Reyna recognized, a stubbornness fueled by anger.

An anger fueled by a deeper sense of injustice.

That was something that Reyna understood.

She walked over to Piper and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. She wasn't much for comforting, but she tried to make the other girl feel some of Reyna's own security.

"The second things look screwy, I'm leaving, and I'll take you with me." She said low enough that she was almost sure that only they could hear. She met the other girl's eyes and was surprised to find that she couldn't actually decipher their color. "I owe you my life, Piper. Your friend, too, to a lesser extent, and I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe."

The girl's eyes were indecipherable. After a moment though, she seemed to see something in Reyna's face, and she nodded.

"Fine." Reyna smiled down at her, and, after another moment, she smiled back.

"Get a room." Groaned Leo. Reyna refused to blush, but she felt the tips of her ears burn a little as she turned to Coach and Hazel.

"So how do we get out of here?

 

Getting out of the Wilderness School for Troubled Teens was easy.

Hotwiring a waiting school bus?

Apparently a piece of cake for the "great Leo Valdez."

But driving the school bus...

That was rapidly becoming a problem.

"I can't drive." Leo admitted. "I mean, I can give it a shot, but..." He shrugged.

"I can't drive, either." Reyna said, disgruntled, wondering how her training had been lacking in this one area.

Oh, right, she'd been taught by wolves.

And why drive a car when Pegasi and chariots were both viable, easier options?

They looked to Hazel and Coach, who both shook their heads.

"Pipes?" Leo asked, "You 'test-drove' that BMW."

Something about the way that he said 'test-drove' made Reyna think that there was probably a lot more to that story. Piper glared at Leo.

“That was different. This is a school bus, and something tells me that the mechanics aren’t the same.”

“It’s worth a try.” Said Hazel, and Reyna had to agree.

“You do have the most experience out of all of us. And we’ve already come this far.”

“O-okay...” Piper said. She rolled her shoulders back and glared at the steering mechanism. “Okay.” She repeated. She sat down in the driver’s seat, and drew the seat belt across her torso. She tucked her braids behind her ears and put the bus into gear. She put her foot down on the gas pedal.

And everyone else promptly fell over.

No one but Piper had thought to actually sit down, and so the lurch of the bus combined with the hideous screeching the engine was making became enough to floor even Reyna. Piper shrieked and slammed her foot onto the brake. The noise stopped and everyone groaned in relief.

“So... I wanna say, maybe not?” Leo ventured.

“No! No, I can do this!” Piper gasped. Reyna’s eyebrows raised in surprise. Piper showed a sense of Roman tenacity that Reyna hadn’t hoped to look for.

“I--I think I just left the parking brake on...” Piper continued. She glared at the gears in front of her, demanding their secrets.

“No rush, or anything, superstar, but I’m pretty sure that everyone from here to Alberta heard that, so maybe....” Leo trailed off when she directed the glare at him. “Or take your time, hey, what do I know?” Piper went back to glaring at the gearshift. Reyna could hear her muttering to herself, trying to figure out where she’d gone wrong.

“Okay, so this is... which means _that’s_ most likely... HA!” Everyone shared a nervous look and jumped into the nearest seat.

Just in case.

Piper threw back the large lever at the front and grabbed another one, wrestling with it for a moment before she got it to move to where she wanted. She crowed again in triumph. To everyone’s surprise, the bus began to move.

“Well done, Kiddo!” Coach cried, patting Piper on the back. With her sudden success, Piper seemed to find the ability to actually drive the bus, and they were off.

And it took a full four hours for their luck to run out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i don't know how to drive a bus. I did not even google how to drive a bus. They had some Divine help with driving the bus.  
> In other news I found a temporary computer and used it to type up what I had lost of the ninth chapter?  
> so it would have been longer but  
> you know  
> my computer fucked off.  
> Sorry that this update came about a month late because of that.  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> I don't actually think I changed any of this chapter. *shrugs* I'm @scarletwix on tumblr if you want to express your surprise that all of these edits are ACTUALLY being posted the day that I said they would be


	10. Stupid Sentient Building

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was only supposed to have ten chapters I have no self control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for dropping off of the face of the Earth. I lost the outline for the next chapter, and when I was typing up this one, my computer crashed and I wound up computer-less for ages (right now I'm using one that was ancient when *I* got it, but I wanted to update, so I'm dealing with the age-induced problems.), and then it was _finals week_  
>  so things have been hectic.  
> With any luck the next break won't be four months long. Thank you all for sticking with me!  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> Ha...........

Jason didn’t know where to go. He couldn’t go back to his room, Nico was there. He couldn’t go to Persephone’s garden without her there, because that was almost a bigger invasion of privacy than staying in his room when Nico was there trying to recuperate.

And he almost certainly couldn’t stay in the Palace, because, without a set destination, the hallways kept leading him back to his room.

Stupid sentient building.

He glared at the walls as menacingly as he could manage, given the fact that they were, you know, _walls_.

“Okay,” he began, feeling ridiculous, and sincerely hoping no one was watching, “I’m going outside, and you’re going to let me, and that’s the end of it, understand?” Did the walls shift in response, or was being in the underworld getting to him?

He sighed, supposing that it didn’t really matter, he’d find a way out eventually.

He hoped.

He started walking again, focusing on getting out of the Palace to the point where he gave himself a headache. The Palace seemed reluctant, but in the distance he could see the gates.  Though they were at the end of a much longer hallway than he remembered. He glared at the walls again, but the hallway didn’t get any longer, and he reached the doors without much trouble, after all.

The darkness of the Underworld crushed him the moment he set foot outside of the Palace. Everything had always seemed lighter when he was with Nico. Now, instead of seeing how cool things were--like the ghosts in Asphodel making their afterlives worthwhile, or pointing out the places where torchlight hit the ceiling gems to almost look like starlight, Jason found that he couldn’t focus on anything except how empty the place at his right where Nico normally stood was, and how _underworldly_ the Underworld suddenly felt.

But he kept going, because as suffocating as the outside of the palace was, the inside had been so much worse. Knowing that his friend--because that’s what Nico was at this point: his only friend in the Underworld--was injured and worse, knowing that there was literally nothing that he could do made him want to--

Well, he didn’t want to be there, was all.

So the outside of the Underworld was better than the scheming halls of the Palace. He wandered around, his feet taking him down familiar paths, until he noticed another corridor, an alley almost, just off of the Palace that he’d never gone down before.

A sense of morbid curiosity drove him forward, even as a voice in his head urged him to turn around. As he walked the air froze around him, and the dim light of the underworld dimmed even further.

_Turn Back._

_Come Closer._

_Go Back to The Palace._

_Come to Us, Son of Jupiter._

He stood, now, at the edge of the pit, where a thousand voices hissed up at him, warring with the voices in his own head. He didn’t even realize that he was leaning into the pit until another voice spoke.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The voice leaked in through his ears and set his frozen brain on fire. He recoiled, stumbling back from the Pit. A wicked smile gleamed at him from the shadows, not cruel, but not necessarily kind. “Well, at least we know you can listen.”

“Wh-what?”

“Can’t have Tartarus taking you, now can I?” If a disembodied smile could shrug, Jason was certain that this one would have. “Not before I’ve claimed my victory.” The smile laughed, before dissolving into the shadows behind him. Jason’s brain stuttered over _Tartarus_ as he wobbled to his feet and turned back to where he could see torchlight illuminating the Palace walls. He could honestly say that he had never been happier to see that eerie green glow. He huffed a sigh of relief and felt the cold lifting as he jogged to the alley entrance. The last of the ice in him slid down his spine as he realized how close he had gotten to actually jumping into Tartarus. He slid down the outer wall of the Palace feeling as though he could shake to pieces.

He’d gotten away, though. How was quickly becoming fuzzy in his mind, but he remembered a voice, a disembodied smile, telling him not to jump, and beyond that, nothing. The fear that was catching up to him was wiping his memory clean. He saw spots in front of his eyes and tried to blink them away, to clear his vision. There was a strange noise in his ears over the thundering of his heart, and it dawned on him that it was his breathing, ragged gasps not quite making it into his lungs. He curled his hands into fists, forced himself to focus on the middle distance, out over the wheat fields of Asphodel, and took several deep breaths. The spots in his vision cleared and he felt his galloping pulse slow.

As much as Tartarus had unnerved Jason, the smile from the shadows had done so much more. But he felt the cold ebb from where it had latched around his heart, and with a few more deep breaths, he felt the anxiety disappear. He looked to where the entrance was and realized with a jolt that Nico had known exactly where it was. He had led Jason away from it many times. He’d always known it was there, had likely known what it could do to Jason.

And Jason wondered if Nico had ever had to face the pull of Tartarus alone, like Jason just had. There was no way for Jason to be absolutely certain, but a sinking feeling in his gut told him that his hunch was most likely correct.

Jason stood, his realization pushing him to _leave now_ , before the knowledge and proximity of that Pit could press at him. He wanted to go back to Nico, to tell him what had happened, ask if the same thing had happened to him, if a disembodied smile had pulled him back from the edge.

He tried to imagine what Nico would say to him now, if he would look at Jason strangely and say ‘of course I’ve never been to Tartarus! People _die_ there!’ He wondered if he would smile at all. Probably not, Tartarus, even the thought of it, wasn’t exactly ‘happy thought’ material. He wondered if Nico would get that faraway look on his face that Jason had seen when Nico was explaining the different parts of the Underworld.

He wondered when he’d started putting so much energy into memorizing Nico’s facial expressions.

He shook his head and turned away from the Palace. Nico was still injured, still likely asleep. If Jason went back now he’d be in for the exact same thing that he’d been experiencing since Persephone had talked to him: pacing the halls and watching Nico for signs of change, waking up, or getting worse. Given that he’d initially left the Palace to _stop_ doing all of that, he doubted that going back now would be such a good idea. So, rather than return to the Palace, Jason turned on his heel, deciding to test his sense of direction and attempt to find the place that he hadn’t seen, save from a distance, since he arrived in the Underworld.

 

He had been looking for a distraction, one that came hand in hand with his favorite myth, never mind that said myth was Greek, not Roman, because Achilles’ story was transcendent. And, yes, given that the Styx was the entrance to the Underworld, he was also hoping (more than a little) to catch a glimpse of the sky, if he walked closely enough to the bank of the river.

Getting to the bank of the most dangerous river in existence wasn’t a problem. Jason had never expected that it would be. His fear was that, when he got there, he wouldn’t be strong enough to stay on this side, the Underworld side. That was probably part of the allure, that he thought maybe he was strong enough, was able to hold up his end of the deal.

Was able to keep Nico’s trust, keep both Reyna and himself alive in a situation where many others had failed. In Jason’s case, though, he knew (or, rather, he hoped) he wouldn’t fail. He had something that no one who’d been in his (or a similar) situation had: a reason to stay that overshadowed his need to see the sky in full, his need to look back at what he hoped would still be there when he returned to the surface.

He had people counting on him.

“Please tell me you’re not here to swim.” A voice to his left said wearily. Jason hadn’t realized that he’d reached the riverbank, lost in thought and staring down at the water before him. It didn’t look like any water that he’d seen before, blacker than the patches of sky between the stars, rushing cool and clean. “I’m really not up for giving a warning speech today.” The voice continued. Jason scanned the opposite bank of the river, telling himself that it was for the best that all he saw was more of the smooth wall of the Underworld, with no sky in sight. He turned to look at the boy who had spoken, for it was a boy. His dark hair hung in waves around his face, the olive hues in his skin and the steel grey of his eyes making him look--alive. More alive than any of the other ghosts Jason had come in contact with, anyway. He wore a plain white tunic, that was frayed at the edges and dotted here and there with blood, but the armor that lay beside him was unlike any Jason had seen outside of New Rome’s Theater District. It was undeniably Greek, and far plainer than anything New Rome had tucked away in its costume department. It was scuffed and dented, and clearly meant for battle. The boy’s arm guards were discarded beside the breastplate, worn and comfortable-looking beside the hard metal. He wore sandals, as did many of the ghosts that Jason had met, but the one on his left foot was torn, and soaked through with blood.

Suddenly, Jason had another reason to stay in the Underworld. His heart was racing in his chest, but from fear or excitement, he didn’t know.

“You’re Achilles.” He breathed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Achilles with anything other than blond hair is so strange for me.  
> I like to think that Jason was in more than a few of the New Rome Theater Guild's productions, or at least did the costumes, ya feel?  
> Cut this in half because otherwise it wouldn't be up today.  
> Come bug me for more updates on @scarletwix on tumblr!  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> This chapter is so short??  
> I don't think I changed much, just some tweaks to make things seem more Jason-y, and to tie in to the Ending Plot.


	11. Beardom: Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What you didn't think I was just going to leave it there, did you?  
> Tsk. No faith.  
> It's really hard to stay in Reyna's head, though. She's kind of a wild card.  
> You know  
> for a strict, rule-following New Roman Praetor.  
> EDIT: 6.18.16  
> I haven't been playing with demigod dreams nearly enough, and I figured since I was considering a Frank chapter, why not just put the important bit into a Reyna-dream?

They were in Missouri. The bus had broken down about three days ago, a combination of a) no gas, b) no money, and c) the engine somehow setting itself on fire when Leo and Coach Hedge were arguing about football.

So they were walking, somewhere in Missouri, just off of the roads, right on the edge of the treeline, and if Reyna tripped over another rock she was going to behead someone. Probably Jason, if she ever saw him again. Hazel walked ahead of them all, so sure footed that Reyna wondered if she wasn’t just asking the ground to pull her along. She could do that, right? With the dirt powers? Reyna would have to ask later. Off to the left, in the trees, Reyna saw a flash of sun on metal and knew that Argentum was doing his job. Watching and waiting to be called. Hopefully the twin canines would be reunited soon, Reyna thought. Argentum had been growing lonely, as of late, his sheen dimming ever so slightly.

“There has to be a bus station  _ somewhere _ .” Piper growled, clearly not wanting to be overheard, but at the same time, she was walking closely enough to Reyna that their shoulders were nearly brushing each other at every step.

Not that Reyna noticed the proximity, of course, but there was no way Reyna wouldn’t have heard.

“One would assume.” She responded, equally quietly, deciding she’d play dumb if necessary. Piper snorted out a laugh. “And yet...”

“What are you guys talking about up there?” Leo called from behind them. “Honestly slow down, my legs are shorter than yours, Amazon!” Reyna’s eye twitched at Leo’s new nickname for her. He didn’t mean anything by it, had no idea that Hylla existed, or that she ran the Amazonian Warriors. He was making a crack about her height, and she would not trip him for petty revenge. 

She repeated that a few more times while Piper answered.

“Or you could walk faster! Honestly, Leo, we’re the same height, how am I going faster than you?” Coach Hedge was somewhere along the path in front of them, scouting for monsters, or other various ‘punching bags’ as he went. Occasionally he would double back with news of some shady vehicle headed their way, or recent bus tracks, but Reyna knew plenty of fauns with faulty tracking methods, so she wasn’t completely sure if she believed Coach when he said that there was sure to be a bus stop up ahead.

Then again, she also wasn’t sure if she could handle another bus ride so soon.

Not that Piper had been a terrible driver...

But she couldn’t drive a bus. She gave it a good effort, but she couldn’t quite get it to run smoothly.

Ahead, Reyna could see Coach Hedge running back their way, likely with more news of shady avoidable vehicles that ‘looked friendly enough’.

Reyna could sense that he still didn’t quite trust her or Hazel, but that he trusted Nico. “Why are you looking for Jack Skellington?” He’d asked Hazel before the bus broke down. 

“He’s my brother and he’s missing! Why wouldn’t I look for him?”

“Also we’ve got a mutual friend who is probably with him right now, so his help would be love-ly.” Reyna had chimed in, trying to ignore the rapidly approaching carsickness.

“Well wherever he’s at, and whoever he’s with, I’m sure he can handle himself.”

“But--” Hazel began, before Coach Hedge cut her off.

“Kiddo, I saw that kid fight in Manhattan. I wouldn’t cross blades with him if it meant I never got to eat again.” Coach had bleated at his made-up scenario, as if it depressed him, and that had been the end of it. But neither Reyna or Hazel could help but wonder what had happened in Manhattan. 

 

This was arguably the worst plan that Reyna had ever agreed to.

And she’d agreed to ambush a manticore’s lair. Turns out manticore babies don’t have venom, but they do hurt like Hades when they sting you.

They were standing about ten feet away from a house that looked like your regular cabin in the mountains, except they weren’t near any mountains, so technically this was a cabin in the woods.

Those never ended well.

The plan was that Hazel and Piper, unquestionably the two least imposing of the group, as well as the least likely to offend anyone accidentally, would knock on the door and ask for hospitality for a group of schoolchildren and their chaperone whose bus had broken down. 

This was made slightly easier by the fact that their cabin in the woods was actually a Bed and Breakfast.

“So, on a scale of one to getting stabbed, how badly do you think this is gonna go?” Leo asked, looking up at Reyna from where they stood, in case they needed to grab the other two and run.

“This was your idea.” She reminded him, one hand on her sword, just in case.

The woman who finally opened the door was tall, nearly as tall as Hylla had been the last time Reyna had seen her, with broad shoulders, and dark hair cascading down her back in a long braid. Her high cheekbones accented her sparkling eyes as she grinned at Hazel and Piper. Her smile spoke of years of contentment, which Reyna envied, and a more recent worry, which Reyna could relate to. She wasn’t sure what Piper told the woman, but she somehow beamed wider and welcomed them all, waving them inside with a sweep of her hand, introducing herself as Annie. The moment they stepped inside, Reyna felt welcome, the hostess chattering away about her patrons and her no-show daughter who normally greets the guests. She showed them all to their rooms right off the bat, and when Reyna had tried to inquire about payment, the woman had waved her off, calling it her “good deed of the year.”

“My idea, but still creeptastic.” Leo hissed, just low enough that Reyna hoped the hostess couldn’t hear. She, Piper, and Hazel were ushered into one room, and Leo and Coach Hedge to another.

“Sorry I couldn’t get y’all your own rooms, but sadly these are the only ones left for the night. Some kinda convention in town, I think!” 

As if swept up by a whirlwind, Reyna found herself suddenly sitting on one of two beds, wearing borrowed pajamas that were too short in the legs and too tight in the shoulders, with printed pictures of horses on them. Hazel, similarly outfitted, swam in her borrowed PJ’s, but piper somehow managed to make her bright yellow Hello Kitty sleepwear look fashionable.

But then again, Piper seemed to be able to make an old snowboarding jacket look good, so Reyna assumed it was just a Piper Thing.

“So,” Piper said, bouncing down onto the bed next to Reyna, grinning, even as Argentum curled up by her feet. “I don’t know what the story is with you guys, but I don’t feel quite comfortable going to New York just because my gym teacher says I should. I know I came this far, but I was still hopped up on adrenaline and painkillers and I’ve had some time to think about it since then.” She shifted on the bed so that her legs were crossed and she was facing Reyna directly. She tried not to flush under Piper’s intense scrutiny. She was a Praetor for Bellona’s sake! Intense scrutiny was her daily agenda! But something about Piper’s gaze unsettled Reyna and set her heart galloping in a way it hadn’t done since-well, since she’d met that one blonde girl back on Circe’s island.

“You stole a bus.” Reyna reminded her. “You wouldn’t have done that without believing Hedge a  _ little _ .”

“I didn’t really, but Leo’s my best friend. No way I’m letting him leave the school without me.” Piper laughed, and it sounded just the wrong side of hysterical. “But- but  _ magic _ and  _ demons _ and gods that still exist? That’s just-”

“Unbelievable?” Hazel finished.

“Yes!”

“One would think, and yet I can still do this.” Hazel opened the window, reached outside, and when she pulled her hand back to where they could see, a diamond the size of her eye rested in her palm. “This area’s full of them.” She shrugged and tossed it back outside. “Cursed, though. All of the stuff I pull up is cursed.” There was an edge of bitterness in her tone as she stared out of the window and watched the diamond sink back into the earth. She sat down on the other bed. “My father is Pluto, Lord of the Dead, and all the riches beneath the Earth.” Piper’s eyes had bugged at the size of the dirty, but perfect diamond Hazel had just thrown out of the window. “But since everything I pick up is cursed, it helped convince me, just a little.”

“Pluto...” Piper whispered. “But wait, Coach said something about the  _ Greek  _ Gods, not Roman. Pluto is Roman, right?”

“Right. Hedge thinks that you two are the children of Greek Gods, but Hazel and I are the children of Roman Gods. It’s not common knowledge that they both exist separately.”

“Are you a child of Pluto as well?”

“No, I’m Bellona’s daughter, strictly Roman.” Reyna tried to keep her tone light and Piper nodded slowly.

“That makes sense.” Reyna tried not to think about what that meant.

“We should sleep. I’ll take first watch.” Reyna said, instead of thinking about it. Hazel rolled her eyes and a crease formed between Piper’s eyebrows.

“Reyna you were almost stabbed today.” Reyna waved her hand.

“I was stabbed last week, too. You don’t see that stopping me.”

“ _ Why do you keep getting stabbed?” _ Piper sounded almost offended. Hazel cut the two of them off before any more bickering could start up.

“ _ I’ll _ take first watch. Reyna, if I can wake you up, you can go after me.” 

“But-”

“No arguing.” Hazel said, deathly quiet, her golden eyes seeming to glow in the lamplight. Reyna flushed and nodded. Piper moved to the other bed while Hazel picked up her  _ Spatha _ and perched on the edge of the chair across from the door. Reyna stared at the ceiling for a moment after Hazel shut the light off, wondering if she’d even be able to sleep when darkness swelled in her eyes, blotting out the room and dropping her into a deep sleep.

The problem with deep sleep for demigods, is that deep sleep tended to bring visions along, as well.

Reyna found herself in the pavilion, standing next to a grim-looking Frank Zhang dressed in battle armor and a Praetor’s cape. Octavian was shouting, standing on what appeared to be a large wooden box. She half expected to hear him shouting about the end of days, like people on large wooden boxes were wont to do.

“I have conducted an augury!” He was shouting, his nasally voice rising above the crowd. “There is no doubt in my mind that these other campers, these abominable  _ Grecian _ demigods,” he sneered, but he seemed to be glowing slightly. Reyna wondered if it was just the dream, or if he was holding the blessing of a god or goddess. The glow was a dark purple, the same purple color of the inside of a pansy. “Are responsible for taking away our Praetors! They sent monsters after Jason Grace and Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano,” She tried not to be offended by how badly he butchered her names, but she failed. To be fair, she wasn’t trying  _ terribly _ hard, either, “and caused Reyna’s death! They convinced Jason Grace to follow her into the Underworld! They have left us without a proper leader!” This was clearly directed at Frank, but to his credit, his only reaction was a barely-visible eye roll. “The gods have shown me the truth! The only way that we can return our camp to glory is to find these Greeks and to crush them! We must be victorious! We are Rome!” He roared. Even Reyna had to admit that he was slightly formidible in his fervor. “Senatus Populusque Romanus!” He shouted, and the spell was broken for her. He wasn’t using the phrase right, but it unnerved her nonetheless. If Octavian was trying to raise an army against the Greek demigods, it could be disastrous.

That was her last thought as the vision faded and she drifted into an actual dream, where Jason had his arm around two dark haired boys, one of whom was dressed in Grecian armor, and the other who looked pale and ill, and seemed to be leaning on Jason more for support than anything else. She wondered if this was the infamous Nico di Angelo.

“Hey, Praetor.” He said with a cocky grin that made her relax immediately. She missed him. He was her family at Camp Jupiter, and his absence was with her every step of the way. His voice sounded strange, like it was coming from deep underwater. “I win.” Reyna’s shocked gasp was loud enough to wake her up.

“ _ He just wanted to win the bet _ !” She hissed, still stuck in the throes of the dream.

“What?” Hazel’s voice broke her from her reverie, and she felt the dream slipping away. There was no bet, and Jason was really stuck in the underworld. She flopped back onto the mattress with a groan.

“Nothing, just a stupid dream.” She tried to drift back off to sleep, to find that place where she had been only moments ago, but the quieter she tried to be and the stiller she tried to lie, the more she realized that she could hear an argument from the floor below.

Curiosity overtook her, and she climbed out of bed, waving off Hazel’s queries, and padding silently to the door.

“-you  _ been?” _ The voice of their hostess did not drift up to Reyna so much as it crashed over her in an angry wave.

“Out. I told you I might be late.” This voice was much younger than the other, and Reyna was willing to bet that this was the absentee daughter that Annie had been talking about earlier.

“You were gone for three days! That’s not late, Tara, that’s grounds to call the police!”

“And yet you didn’t! You knew I would be fine!”

“How could I have known that?”

“There must have been a reason you didn’t call the police and start a search party.” The daughter’s voice went soft and kind, “You knew I’d be okay.”

“But I didn’t know if you’d come back.” There was a pause, and Reyna could feel the daughter’s hesitation from the landing she stood on.

“We’ll talk more in the morning, alright? You need to sleep.”

“Can you at least promise me that you’ll be here when I wake up?” Another pause, but shorter this time, and when Tara responded, her voice was calm and determined.

“Yes, I promise.”

Reyna padded back to the room and shut the door quickly as she heard footsteps rising up the stairs. Hazel’s golden eyes glittered with curiosity as Reyna turned back to her.

“Something really strange is going on with that family.”

“No kidding?”

 

The next morning, the girls were awoken by a sharp rap at the door, Reyna, from her watch position beside it, was standing and had the door open in seconds. If Annie was surprised at her promptness, it didn’t show in the smiling eyes. Nor did her odd late night conversation with her daughter, Tara, save a slight darkening of the skin beneath her eyes. 

“If y’all would like to join us for breakfast, then feel free to come down in about twenty minutes. I can have my daughter Tara whip us up something nice.” She looked over at Hazel who looked like she was halfway back to the land of the living, and Piper whose hair was sticking up in several directions, but whose eyes were bright and incredibly focused. Piper nodded and Hazel yawned, so Reyna turned back to Annie with a polite smile.

“That sounds lovely, thank you.”

 

Hazel bounced back the moment she smelled the food. Within moments her plate was heaped with as much food as Leo’s and Coach Hedge’s. Reyna supposed that it had been a while since they ate anything other than ambrosia or anything they could find in the wilderness. She was surprised that she herself wasn’t hungrier, but it probably had something to do with the fact that she’d been trained to withstand conditions far worse than this. “This” of course, entailing nearly dying, taking on a quest that many people thought was well beyond her ability to complete. After a moment's deliberation she piled her plate high as well. She didn’t know when the next time she’d eat like this would be. Annie sat across from Piper, making small talk, and occasionally casting glances at the door, like she was waiting for someone to come back in.

And then she did.

A girl, the spitting image of Annie, but clearly years younger sat in the last empty seat next to Reyna and grinned.

“Sorry I couldn’t be here to welcome y’all last night, something came up. I’m Tara.” Out of the corner of Reyna’s eye, she saw Annie stiffen, her mouth tightening, her smile freezing in place.

“Your mother seemed worried.” This was Piper, there was a similarly irritated set to her shoulders, and her eyes were flashing, the colors in them changing rapidly.

“I told her to come with me.” Tara said, her voice clipped, but still polite.

“I’m not going to come with you and join your ridiculous  _ cult _ .” Annie hissed, all but slamming her silverware onto the table.

“It’s not a cult, mom, I was  _ chosen _ ! We both were chosen!”

“For what, a ‘greater purpose’? Don’t mock me, Tara.” Tara slammed her hands down on the table, using the momentum to help her stand. There were tears in her eyes, Reyna thought.

“No! We were chosen for a better life! A way to put all of this behind us, to abandon the dream that died the day dad walked out on us!” She took a shaky breath, Annie looked like she’d been slapped. “Cal says we have two days, before she leaves us. I’m going back tonight, and I’ll be here again tomorrow morning. I will be going with them, whether you’re with me or not. Please  _ please  _ think about it?” Annie set her jaw, refusing to answer, and Tara hung her head. For a moment, Reyna thought she’d say more, try and argue the point again, but she didn’t. Without another word, she turned and left. After a moment, there was a sniffle, and then Annie was crying, big gasping sobs that shook through her whole body.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that-” She gasped out between her sobs. “I can’t fathom what has come over her! She’s never been the same since her father left.” Piper reached across the table and grasped Annie’s hand.

“Do you know what she’s been doing?” Annie flailed her free hand around.

“It started a few weeks ago. She met this girl-Cal-and wouldn’t stop talking about her, about the group of friends she had made. I encouraged it at first, she never had many friends growing up, but after a while she’d stay out all hours, and she wouldn’t come home some days. It worried me, I asked her to stop seeing these friends, and that’s when she started going on about destiny. It-well to be frank, it scared me. And now we never speak without fighting and she wants me to come with her on this harebrained cult scheme where we’ll no doubt both end up dead.”

“I have an idea.” Reyna said, not quite realizing that she was speaking until the words had already left her mouth. The story that Annie had told was bringing back a hazy memory. All eyes were on her. She pushed her chair away from the table. “Um. Give me a minute. Which room is Tara’s?” Annie told her and it wasn’t until she had reached the door itself that she realized there was a major flaw in her plan.

She had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth. She knocked anyway.

Tara opened her door, leftover tears still in her eyes.

“Sorry, can I help you?” Her voice was slightly less than hostile. Reyna grinned sheepishly.

“You know, I didn’t really think this far ahead? I just felt like-well you shouldn’t have to be alone after a fight like that.” Tara slammed her body against the doorjamb, managing to look almost nonchalant. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for Reyna to continue. Reyna exhaled. “Okay, I know what it feels like to fight with family over ‘destiny’ or whatever you were spouting down there. I haven’t spoken to my sister in months. From what it sounds like, you won’t speak to your mother for even longer if you guys don’t come to some sort of agreement.”

“There is no agreement to be made. If she doesn’t come I’ll never get to see her again. And there’s no way she’s going to come, because she doesn’t trust Cal.”

“What if someone else were to vouch for Cal?” Reyna said the name like she was afraid to mess it up.

“Like who?”

“Well, like us? Look I know that there’s no reason for her to trust us, and there’s no reason for you to trust us, but a second opinion can’t be  _ un _ helpful, can it?”

For a moment, Reyna held her breath.

For a moment it looked like Tara was going to slam the door in her face.

For a moment, Reyna was afraid she’d say no.

Instead, she slumped forward even further on the door frame and looked at the ground.

“Alright. You can try to help.” Tara glared at her. “The operative word there being ‘try.’”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But yeah, sorry this took so long to update. You know, if anyone's still reading this.  
> My Tumblr is @scarletwix, as usual.


	12. Ashes To Ashes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 1, because if I'd kept the two parts together, this would have wound up being 18 pages long and I wanted a chapter up tonight!!  
> This is dedicated to @tiredandjaded on tumblr and @CallingVersatile here on AO3! I hope I can live up to your expectations and put out a fic that comes together in the end!  
> I know most people don't consider Monday as part of the weekend, but I don't start working until Tuesday this week, so hey. Part of my weekend.

"You're Achilles." Jason's voice was a breathless whisper.

He had to resist the urge to squeal like a little girl meeting Cody Christian.

Jason had questions. He had so very many questions about fact versus fiction of the Trojan war, but all of them came to a screeching halt when he realized the hero was alone.

"Wait, what are you doing here?" He asked, "shouldn't your days be spent in Elysium? You’re a hero!"

"My conduct after Hector's death did not land me in Hades good graces." Achilles replied, wryly.

"So your punishment is what?" Achilles threw himself down on the bank of the Styx, Jason joined him, sitting down gingerly, making sure to avoid the water that sloshed up around Achilles.

"I am to guard the river Styx alone to ensure that no one prepared mortal attempts to enter, and in doing so, make the same mistakes that I did. So far only one person has ignored my warnings recently." Achilles recited, sounding like it was a speech he’d not only been forced to memorize, but that he’d repeated to himself on more than one occasion.

"How long is your punishment meant to last?" Achilles shrugged, continuing to stare Jason with bored, almost lifeless eyes. "So as far as you know, you'll never be at peace?" And then, for the barest moment, something finally flashed and Achilles eyes. Jason thought it might be pain, or despair, until his eyes focused again and showed only anger.

“Yes. Thank you ever so much for reminding me.” Achilles stood, hands fluttering to brush away at specks of sand that weren’t there. His voice was clipped, like he was trying to find a way back to the flat, expressionless tone that he’d begun their conversation with. It didn’t work. There was an edge of grief to his words, like he was verging on a full-fledged breakdown. Jason could relate. “Now, if you’re not going to swim, then I’d like to return to oblivion, now.” Before Jason could respond, or offer to help him, he was gone.

Jason felt bad. He couldn’t help it, but then again, there was no way for him to get Achilles to come back (barring jumping into the Styx, which was a bad idea for so many reasons Jason didn’t want to even attempt to explain them all). He figured, if he couldn’t apologize, he might as well make it up to the hero.

In the version of events that Homer had written, Achilles had been so devoted to Patroclus that he’d asked for their ashes to be combined in the same urn, so they could travel to the underworld together. Also according to Homer, this didn’t happen. The odds of Jason being able to rectify this oversight in order to bring Achilles and Patroclus together were astronomically low, even if he weren’t stuck in the underworld.

But he could find Patroclus in the underworld. He could find a way to bring them together again and make Achilles’s punishment less devastating.

He thought about asking Hades for help locating Patroclus, but then he realized that even if he’d forgotten about the curse he’d placed on Achilles, even if he’d forgiven him, reopening that wound would not have a single favorable outcome.

He started to walk again, deep in thought.

He was worried. Mostly about Nico, but also about Reyna, and the Camp, and Octavian being... well, Octavian.

 _Doing_ something would definitely get his mind off of all of that.

But he couldn’t just _walk_ into Elysium and start asking for Patroclus.

Could he?

He wasn’t really dead, he realized. The rules of the underworld didn’t apply to him in the same way. He wasn’t bound by any sort of magical conventions. He was limited by how far his courage and (let’s face it) stupidity took him. He’d learned that with Lupa, over seven years ago.

Long.

Story.

As he drew nearer to the banks of the Lethe, which joined with the river Cocytus to the south, where he could see the Fields of Punishment if he squinted, he realized that he had no way to get across the river and over to where Elysium and the Isle of the Blest were.

Except...

Well, he knew that there was air in the Underworld, obviously, or he would be dead. And he’d used his powers on a miniscule scale earlier that day. (Assuming it had been only a day. He still wasn’t used to the way that time passed in the Underworld.) He focused on the air currents around him, and found that it was the hardest it had been since he’d first begun training with Lupa. The air around him became shallow and more difficult to breathe, but he felt it harden beneath his feet, raising him up a few inches above the surface of the river.

 _Okay, Jason. One step at a time_.

He sucked in as much air as he could and started to walk. He didn’t look down, knowing that the calmly swirling waters of the Lethe would distract him, he would fall, and he would most certainly drown.

When he finally touched down on the opposite bank of the river, pure green grass mere inches from his toes, he sucked in a gasp and fell to his knees.

He hadn’t realized how terrifying that would be, but next time, he would focus on flying over as high and fast as he could. He pressed his forehead into the dewy grass and waited for his arms to stop trembling.

At length, he staggered to his feet, and let the beauty of Elysium overwhelm him.

He seemed to be back in the mortal world, and if it weren’t for the fact that if he looked over his shoulder, he could see Cerberus in the distance, he would have been fooled. There was a gorgeous mesh of architecture here. Jason could see the pillars and columns that were so popular in Greece and Rome mixed in with homes that looked like they belonged in the wild west. It shouldn’t have meshed, but there was an aura of peace here that bound everything together. A path began a few feet from where he stood and led into the heart of Elysium. He shook off the spell that had come over him. He had to find Patroclus.

Easier said, than done, he discovered.

The spirits he encountered were marginally unhelpful, and it was growing increasingly ridiculous. The answers he received to his inquiries about Patroclus ranged from “oh don’t bother the poor boy” to “never heard of him.” Each resulted in a door slamming in his face. He may not have been an architect, but as rejection after rejection came, he found himself growing incredibly familiar with door crafting through the ages.

He didn’t care that this was Elysium, the next person to look him in the eye and tell him to stop looking was getting run through with some fine Roman Imperial Gold.

He stopped in front of yet another home that had dropped straight out of Ancient Greece and knocked wearily. The door opened to reveal a young man with high cheekbones and skin that shone like bronze in the faux sunlight of Elysium. He was barefoot, with a Doric Chiton hastily pinned into place at his shoulder.

“I’m looking for Patroclus.” Jason began, already more than prepared to be turned away again. The boy adjusted the shoulder strap of his chiton as he spoke.

“Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place.” Jason started, and looked more closely at the boy before him.

He was of a medium height and build, but rather than these facts rendering him unremarkable, it just made his attractiveness more potent. His hair fell in waves around his face and into his warm brown eyes. Jason stared.

“In case it wasn’t clear enough,” The boy continued, his eyebrows disappearing behind the hair that swept across his forehead. “I am Patroclus.” His tone said he was humoring Jason, at least a little bit.

Jason didn’t know whether to laugh or cry with the potency of his relief. He became rather abruptly aware that he was staring at Patroclus with his mouth hanging open. He probably should have led with “Hi, I’m Jason, I’m not normally like this, but it’s not every day that you come into contact with your childhood hero’s boyfriend, and find out that he’s even hotter than you’d thought” or something eloquent and mortifying like that, but all he could think was _this could work._

And also that Patroclus was really rocking that chiton, which made him feel vaguely guilty for reasons he didn’t understand. He understood feeling bad because he was practically drooling over someone that Achilles’ was still very much in love with, but there was more to it than that, and a little voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Reyna kept wondering _what about Nico?_

With all of this swirling in his head, he really wasn’t at fault when instead of calmly explaining the situation and introducing himself, he blurted:

“It’s about Achilles!”

 _Well done, Jason._ The voice whispered, sounding far too sarcastic for his tastes. He watched as Patroclus’s face became closed off, and something slightly angry entered his eyes. He had to act quick or risk finding out what Ancient Grecian heroes had engraved on their doors.

“I mean,” he continued quickly, as Patroclus opened his mouth, probably to tell him in no uncertain terms to _get off his lawn_ , “I’ve found out where he is.”

“Oh?” Patroclus’s voice was colder than the backside of a hyperborean giant.

“He’s been bound to the river Styx. He can’t leave, and he has to warn away any mortal who comes near.” Patroclus seemed to somehow stand up straighter and wilt at the same time. Jason supposed that it made sense, in a way. He’d found out that Achilles hadn’t stayed away of his own free will, hadn’t abandoned Patroclus, the way he’d likely worried about for the past three thousand years. But at the same time-

“He’s trapped?” All at once, Patroclus sounded like he had been waiting for three thousand years, only to be told to pack it up, because the love of his life was never coming back.

“That’s why I came to see you. I thought there might be a way to free him. I wanted to know if you had any idea how.”

“I think-” Patroclus said slowly- “that you had better come inside.”

He opened the door a bit wider and Jason took his cue.

“It sounds like a curse,” Patroclus confirmed, as he led Jason inside. If Jason had any awe left over from meeting both Patroclus and Achilles in the same day, then he would have been astounded by the beauty of the home. As it was, he didn’t pay much attention to his surroundings, too busy wondering if Patroclus might actually be the son of Aphrodite, and hanging on his every word. “This would mean that it is based in godly magic. If we can find what sort of magic it is, then it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to decipher how to reverse it.” Patroclus shook his head. “Even were I mortal, and capable of such strong magic, it could take eons to discover what keeps him there.”

“Or divine intervention.” Patroclus cracked a smile at Jason’s words.

“That seems to be incredibly unlikely.” Patroclus led Jason into an antechamber overlooking a cliff. Jason knew that it couldn’t truly be real, but it was so beautiful that it took his breath away. And then he saw who was lounging in the couch next to the window. Patroclus’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline again. Jason could see what drew Achilles to him, the boy wore expressions like designer clothing. Every single expression was perfectly crafted to the situation, and looked like a work of art painted on his delicate features. “My lady!” He cried, dropping to his knees. “To what do we owe the honor?” The woman smiled delightedly at Patroclus.

“Well that hasn’t happened in quite a few thousand years!” She looked at Jason, as though they were sharing a secret when she spoke again. “I do miss the respect that mortals gave us in the younger ages.” Jason realized with a rush of embarrassment that he was still standing, and he sunk to his knees beside Patroclus. The woman was tall and willowy, with long, onyx hair that was tied back in a [traditional Roman braiding style]. Her Ionian chiton was a deep, rich pink that highlighted the color in her cheeks, and the sparkle in her eyes. She, much like Patroclus, seemed to improve every expression just by wearing it. Even in the golden light of Elysium, she appeared to glow. She focused the full force of her gaze on Jason, and for a moment he felt like he might actually split apart.

He felt as though she had reached a nimble hand inside of his soul and unlocked his greatest fears, regrets, and hopes. It seemed to Jason that she was weighing them to see if he was worthy. He saw images flickering across his mind, visions that overwhelmed the real world.

He was six years old again, terrified in the presence of a wolf, just wanting to know when his big sister was coming back.

He was eight, and Lupa told him that his sister was dead to the world, and he felt every last dream that he had of rescuing her and bringing her back to Camp Jupiter with him wither and die.

He felt the lowest point of his fight at Mount Othrys, as if it were happening all over again: his skull threatening to split form the force of hearing a Titan’s words echo in his head, the promise that he can bring his family back to life in their new world.

His rage that anyone would _dare_ use Thalia against him.

The doubt in his own ability at his first war council as Praetor, then relief as Reyna joined him.

He saw her die again.

He saw Nico di Angelo more times than he could count.

And then he felt the cool press of stone beneath his palms and his forehead, his back and shoulders damp with sweat.

If he hadn’t known better, he would say he’d just run a marathon.

“Hmm.” The goddess said, and Jason felt a calmingly familiar hand on his back. The goddess knelt down and wrapped her fingers around his elbow and pulled him to his feet. He flashed back to when he’d first entered the Underworld and nearly walked into the Fields of Asphodel.

She had pulled him back then, as well.

“It was you?” He asked, his voice hoarse. And she nodded, sympathetic. “Who-”

“There will be plenty of time for that later, Jason Grace.” She chided. “For now, I have come with a purpose. Regrettably, we must return you to the Palace. Lord Hades has a request to ask of you.” They were already walking, and Jason turned to wave at Patroclus, who gave him a stunned ‘goodbye’ as they retreated across the lawn.

“He sent you?”

“Persephone sent me. Lord Hades wanted to send Charon. Believe me, be glad _I_ came instead.” The joking lilt was back in her voice, and Jason couldn’t help but notice the difference in her address of the King and Queen of the Underworld. Dropping the honorific for one of them could mean anything. The goddess who was walking him across the river Lethe was either a dear friend of Persephone, or older than her by enough for it to matter. He wanted to ask who she was again, but she tightened her grip on Jason’s arm and suddenly they were flying across the Underworld, rocketing back to the Palace at breakneck speeds.

He didn’t seem to have a body, anymore, traveling instead as the air currents in the Underworld, faster than he’d ever gone before.

He was really glad that his way of flying wasn’t half this terrifying.

They landed in the throne room, and the goddess let her hand rest on Jason’s shoulder until he found his footing again.

“I’m flying my way next time.” He croaked. His brain was still mush, scattered behind him on the winds. He couldn’t hold back his words, and as they left his mouth, his one thought was ‘oh god I hope she doesn’t find that insulting, I would rather not get smote today.’ The goddess laughed, and Jason stood a little straighter, her laugh settling his soul back in his body, the last of his nausea melting away. He had half of a second to wonder who she was again before his eyesight settled.

When his eyes refocused, his eyes lit on the gods in their thrones. The goddess beside him drifted away to stand behind Persephone, her hand resting gently on Persephone’s shoulder.

The rulers of Hell looked exhausted.

“We have put as much energy into saving Nico as the two of us can, Jason, but he’s getting worse.” Persephone said quietly, answering his unspoken question. Hades continued to glower beside her, looking as though most of his exhaustion came from Jason merely being in his presence. Persephone followed his eyes and reached out to her husband, swatting him lightly on the arm. “Darling.” She chided. If Jason hadn’t wanted to keep his body intact, he would have said that Hades pouted in response to her admonishment.

“We need to send him to the mortal world to receive proper treatment for his injuries.” Hades grumbled. “The Underworld is no place to make a full recovery. It’s not a place for the living.” He glowered at Jason as if the deal he’d made was somehow Jason’s idea.

“We need you to help him.” Jason looked back to Persephone, preferring her tired smile to Hades’.

“I don’t follow.” His mind was still stuck with her earlier statement: he’s getting worse. The thought of Nico dying left a sour taste in his mouth. He felt like he was fighting for breath.

“We can’t leave the Underworld while it’s in this state of change, and we can’t just send Nico somewhere and hope for the best.”

“We need you to accompany Nico to Camp Half-Blood, and ensure that he gets the treatment he needs in order to recover.”

They clearly took his stunned silence as reluctance because Hades sighed.

“And, of course, if this venture is successful, and you return my son to me in one piece, and _not_ through the EZ Death line,” Hades glowered, and Jason figured that if Nico died on his watch, then Nico wouldn’t be the only one going through the EZ Death line, “then your punishment will be alleviated. You will remain as his bodyguard for the year, but will only need to return to the Underworld when he wishes to.” Hades raised an eyebrow, and Jason realized that he hadn’t been as sneaky with this travels into Elysium as he’d thought. He was just surprised that Hades wasn’t turning him into a pile of ash for trespassing, or condemning him to a windowless jail cell constructed specifically for Undead criminals and sons of Jupiter. “What is your answer?”

Jason was tempted to ask why they decided to have him go with Nico, but he didn’t want to push his luck. They wanted him to leave the underworld.

He would be able to breathe again.

He hadn’t really realized how thin the air in the Underworld was until his excursion to Elysium, but now the knowledge was present with every breath he took.

“Of course.” He said, instead.

Hades nodded, like he had expected nothing less, but the lines around his eyes lifted a little bit, and the downward turn of his mouth became a little less pronounced. Persephone smiled gratefully, and it occurred to Jason that they’d thought he’d refuse.

Like he could pass up a chance to leave the Underworld.

Like he wouldn’t do anything in his power to save Nico di Angelo.

“When do we leave?”

Hades snapped his fingers, and a still-unconscious Nico di Angelo was carried into the room by one of the skeletal guards. The guard handed Nico off to Jason, who was valiantly trying not to look the skeleton in the eye sockets, because honestly, even he had limits. Jason held Nico as delicately as he could. The boy was far lighter than he should have been, like he’d been subsisting on pomegranate seeds for the past year. He supposed it likely had to do with Nico’s recent injury. For the first time in a while, Jason found himself wanting to know how much time had passed, less to know how long he had left, and more to answer the question of ‘how long has Nico been injured?’ The longer the injury, he’d found from experience, the less chance the victim had of recuperating.

Hades stood and strolled down the steps of the dais until he was standing in front of Jason.

“You leave right now.” He said a hint of gruesome amusement in his voice as he raised a finger and pressed it to Jason’s forehead.

Shadow travel when it’s at the behest of a god was far different than when Nico had found him there. That became apparent almost immediately. The god barely touched his forehead, and Jason found himself hurtling through the shadows. He tightened his grip on Nico, and ducked his head. Mere seconds later, Jason’s feet his land again. He ignored the aching in his throat that normally came after screaming at the top of his lungs for fifteen minutes straight and forced his eyes open.

He was in a large wooden room, and every single decoration in it was black. The doors were painted a glittery black, there was a shrine in the corner that burned with black fire, there were blackout curtains hanging on the walls, and if Jason’s eyes weren’t playing tricks on himself, then that was definitely a bunk bed made out of black coffins.

He blinked a few times, just to make sure, but yep.

Coffins.

“What in Hades...?” he muttered.

“Funny isn’t it?” Came a weak voice from the vicinity of Jason’s shoulder. Nico’s eyes were wide open, but his face looked like the situation was anything but funny. “I wasn’t consulted in the decorating process. I keep meaning to renovate but, eh. The coffins are comfier than they look.”

Jason couldn’t really see his face in the dim glow that emanated from the torches in the wall sconces (and wow, someone involved in the decorating had to have been to the underworld at least once, because that was a _spot on_ detail.) but his legs felt like jelly and he had an armful of injured demigod, so he didn’t want to risk going outside, as much as the stale air in the cabin spoke of fresher breezes just beyond the glittering door. “You can probably put me down.” Jason stopped staring at the door and looked back down at his friend, who had a slight tinge of color on his cheeks (or was it just shadow?). Nico was refusing to look him in the eyes, keeping his gaze straight ahead, locked on his knees.

“You sure you can stand?”

“Yes.” Nico replied, with an edge of stubbornness that made Jason think that he probably wasn’t telling the entire truth. Jason fought the urge to roll his eyes and bit down on a smile as he helped Nico to the floor.

He had hardly released Nico’s arms when the other boy stumbled and fell.

Jason had been expecting that, though, and he lunged to catch his friend before he could hit the ground.

“So the way I see it,” He began, keeping his voice light and ignoring the fact that his heartbeat was essentially beating so hard it was drowning out the sound of his own voice, which meant that Nico could definitely feel it, they were standing so close. Jason hoped that Nico knew that he’d just been frightened by the possibility of Nico falling and injuring himself further.

The excuse sounded feeble, even to Jason.

“We have three options. One: I pick you back up-”

“No.”

“I drag you to wherever you get medical attention-”

“The Apollo cabin, or the Big House. Probably the Big House. And, again, _no_.”

“Then option three: get on my back.” Nico was silent. “Come on, it’s a piggy-back ride. There is no way you can die from a piggy-back ride, Nico.”

“You might just find a way.” Nico grumbled, but he was already pushing out of the circle of Jason’s arms, supporting himself with a hand on Jason’s shoulder as he crossed behind him. Jason bent his legs slightly, and Nico maneuvered onto his back.

“Offense.” Jason said, to stop himself from saying anything else.

“It was meant that way.” Nico’s voice was right next to his ear, and Jason had to stop himself from shivering at the feeling of Nico’s breath against his cheek.

“Don’t fall off.”

“Don’t drop me.”

Jason took a shaky step forward, a rush of relief flooded through him when his knees held and he made it to the door with each step growing stronger and more sure than the last.

He pulled the door open and blinked.

It was so _bright_.

A flood of fresh air came to him on the breeze and his heart lifted, he felt a smile stretch across his features and a laugh bubble up in his throat.

Nico was silent. Jason turned to him to make sure everything was okay, that he hadn’t somehow hurt himself further, but Nico was merely staring at him wordlessly, his dark eyes wide, a surprised smile on his face at the sight of Jason’s own. The sunlight was illuminating his face in a way that Jason had never seen, and even though his skin was still pale from his injury, his skin seemed to glow in the sunlight. It caught in his eyes and made them dance. A shocking revelation shot across Jason’s mind.

Jason’s breath caught in his throat. His face was much closer to Nico’s than he realized, and he is intently aware of Nico’s arms wrapped around his shoulders. They were close enough that Jason could feel their breath mixing between them, and more than anything, Jason wanted to lean forward that last inch and-

_Woah._

_Stop that._

He felt himself flush, and he had _just_ gotten his heart to calm down, but here it was, racing its way out of his chest. He was staring at Nico. He needed to say something, but it felt like his throat was blocked.

He’d never seen Nico in full color before.

Jason turned away so that Nico wouldn’t see the next thought in his face.

 _Nico was beautiful_.

_Hold that thought, Grace._

“I uh,” He laughed, embarrassed, praying that Nico hadn’t realized where Jason’s thoughts had just led him.

“It’s been awhile since you’ve been outside.” Nico teased. “It must be a bit stunning to be here after so long.”

“Let’s get you to a healer,” He mumbled, because it was safer than replying that the sun wasn’t what had stunned him. “I can’t have you dying because I couldn’t get past seeing the sun, now can I?”

He adjusted his grip on Nico’s legs and walked out of the cabin slowly, allowing his eyes plenty of time to get used to the bright sunlight.

After a beat, he let his feet carry him out into the unfamiliar terrain.

They had reached Camp Half-Blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know.  
> I changed the first line like 4 times, because I realized this fic has to take place circa 2010/2011 in order to make sense, and pop culture from 5 years ago might as well be ancient history. I have like 8 imdb tabs up and I still almost went with Justin Bieber. Thank god for Kayla tbh.  
> Anyway, come yell at me for Jason's decisions @scarletwix on tumblr!  
> Next chapter will be Reyna, and will also be cut in half because otherwise the timing will be off.  
> This was only supposed to have four more chapters and now it has six what am I doing why did i change the ending (to make it better).  
> Comments and kudos are life blood!! I eat them up like cupcakes guys.  
> And my love for cupcakes is unparalleled.  
> Love you nerds, thanks for sticking with me!!


	13. Beardom 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My House Now.

As the clock struck the witching hour, Reyna and the others followed Tara as she snuck down the stairs and through the house, silent as a cat. Reyna thought, a little jealously, of Argentum, curled up and sleeping on the bed she'd occupied only minutes before.

Coach Hedge and Leo, unfortunately, were not so gifted in the art of stealth.

Coach Hedge bleated at every object that he decided to use in lieu of stairs, or the hallway (of which there were many), and Reyna was almost certain that there was no way to get the hoofprints out of the wallpaper. 

She sighed and hoped that this helped, in any way.

At least Leo's incompetence for stealth could be explained as a total lack of training.

"You know what would make this easier?" He grumbled audibly, after running into his thirteenth piece of furniture. "A flashlight. A torch. Even just some bare fire. Can we do that? Can I just light a fire so that I'm not running into the entire house at once?"

"You are _not_ setting my mother's house on fire." Tara hissed. "If she decides to stay behind and continue living her pipe dream, that's her prerogative, but I will see to it that she at least still has somewhere to stay." Leo put his hands up in surrender, a movement that was almost lost in the dim moonlight.

"Okay, fine, fine. Forget I said anything."

"Done." Tara growled.

"She loves me." Reyna heard Leo mock-whisper to Hazel, who made an odd squeak in response. She turned to look at her friend, surprised to find that Hazel was looking... anywhere but Leo. She raised an eyebrow, hoping Hazel would give her some kind of response, but Hazel just shook her head sharply, mouthing the words 'not now' at Reyna as her curls bounced around her face. Reyna shrugged. Hazel's secrets were Hazels' to keep, until the time came that she wanted to share them with Reyna.

As they left the house, Reyna was almost certain that she saw the curtains in one of the upper windows twitch, as if someone had looked out and disliked what they saw. 

They followed Tara deeper and deeper into the trees surrounding her mother's Bed and Breakfast, silence descending upon their group as soon as the trees covered the stars from view. They were going east, Reyna thought, from the occasional flashes of constellations that she could spy between the canopy of leaves overhead.

She was almost positive that her estimation was incorrect.

There was a certain quality to these woods that reminded Reyna of holy places. Shrines to the gods, or places that people loved so much that they'd imbued it with energy from their own life force to make them magical, places that only existed at a certain time of night under very specific conditions. Liminal spaces, holy places, this forest was both.

And it felt familiar. She wasn't sure why, but she was increasingly of the opinion that, despite having never set foot in the state before, she had been in this forest. It felt warm, despite the fact that Missouri was still in the throes of winter, and moreover, it felt safe. It felt like she was coming home to Hylla again, after years of wandering on her own.

The Amazons didn't feel like that. They felt like employees at a high tech conglomerate. 

This felt like coming home to Hylla before she had been an Amazon. Back when it was just the two of them, fighting against the world to survive. 

She would be the first to admit that she missed it. She knew for a fact that Hylla didn't, and probably never would.

She breathed in deeply, trying to banish thoughts of her sister from her mind, knowing that it would do no good to dwell on the past. She needed to focus on helping Tara. She needed to focus on finding Jason. She needed to get the both of them back home to New Rome and focus on kicking Octavian out of the senate.

Okay, maybe that last one was a stretch, but Jason was her family now, as much as Hylla had been then, and she wanted him back.

It took her an embarrassing amount of time to realize why it felt familiar in this forest, why it felt like home.

And that embarrassing amount of time ended when a voice boomed through a clearing, loud and clear and as impossible to miss as the full moon on a cloudless night.

"Ha!" Callisto roared, the sound sending a wave of belonging through Reyna. "I thought I smelled a wolf!" An easy grin spread across Reyna's face, one that had been missing since she and Hylla had decided to continue to roam, rather than join Callisto and her merry band of bears.

"Shouldn't you be hibernating, you old grouch?" She called back, pushing past a shocked and surprised Tara to jump into Callisto's waiting bear hug.

The moment that Callisto's arms closed around Reyna, she was overwhelmed by memories of the days that she and her sister had spent with Callisto. Toward the end of their stay, Callisto had extended an offer for them to travel with her and the rest of her sleuth.

Hylla had cried when she said no, and Reyna couldn't, to this day, figure out why she hadn't agreed to go with Callisto.

She breathed in deeply, reveling in the feeling of belonging that Callisto carried with her and gave to all lost souls. This was why the forest had felt like home, she realized. It belonged to Callisto.

Callisto let go of Reyna and turned to face Tara. Her face softened in a way that Reyna easily recognized. It was the way that she had looked at Hylla, before they'd left.

"I'm so happy for you." Reyna said quietly, and Callisto's eyes lit up. She reached out and ruffled Reyna's hair, a gesture as nostalgic as it was familiar.

"And look at you," She breathed, "Hylla must be so proud." Reyna's face fell, just enough.

"I wouldn't know. She didn't stay with me when we got to Camp Jupiter." Callisto sighed.

"Well, as long as the two of you aren't doing anything stupid."

Reyna decided it was best not to mention her recent trip to the Underworld. Callisto narrowed her eyes.

"You're not doing anything stupid, are you?"

"I'm looking for a friend, and delivering these two to another camp."

Not technically false. Callisto's mouth twisted, more than slightly disbelievingly. 

"You are a terrible liar, but I'll believe you." She said at length, before she turned to Tara and took her hand.

Next to Tara, it became clear that Callisto stood at her full ten feet, her thick hair braided perfectly behind her head. Tara was, at most, four feet tall.

But that would change once she took her place in the sleuth. Her teeth were once again bared in a grin.

"Well, pup, introduce me to your pack." Reyna heard Coach Hedge bleat, offended, and her own smile twitched back to life. She gestured behind her, to each of the people she was travelling with. Hazel stood closest, though Piper was right beside her, looking as though she was wavering between running to Reyna to help her, and staying put, as long as there was no danger.

"This is Hazel, she's a member of the Fifth Legion, and one of the only people I know who can actually fight on horseback," She'd only seen Hazel train on one of the cavalry mounts, back when they still _had_ cavalry mounts. Hazel ducked her head, but not before her expression turned from wary to pleased. "Leo," He waved a hand, from where he stood, waiting at the edge of the clearing. "He's a demigod that we picked up on our way to look for Jason and Nico di Angelo. Coach Hedge, who is a..."

"Seeker!" The satyr supplied, marching up to Callisto. "One of the best." Reyna turned back to Callisto and rolled her eyes. She felt Piper come up to her side, close enough that when their shoulders brushed, Reyna could feel her nervousness. Reyna glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, surprised to see that her chin was lifted confidently.

Reyna wasn't sure who her godly parent was, but she was certain that they would be proud of Piper right now. Reyna's lips twitched, and she ignored the way that her heart swelled at Piper's display of loyalty in the face of, well, Callisto.

She was looking a ten foot tall immortal in the eye unflinchingly, her nervousness was practically palpable, and yet, here she stood.

"And this is Piper," She said, watching as Piper extended a hand, cool as a cucumber, completely unfazed by the fact that she was quite possibly outmatched. And maybe some approval slipped through, hidden in her words, because Callisto let out a whoop and crushed her in the same hug that Reyna had gotten.

She set the disoriented Piper back down beside Reyna, who reached out to steady her with a smile. Piper took her hand and leaned up against her for support while she likely waited for the world to stop spinning.

Reyna tried to keep her emotions to herself, but she couldn't deny the surge of happiness that ran through her as Piper leaned on her.

"Well, I welcome you all." Callisto said, looking at each of them in turn. "We were just about to set a guard. There have been machinations at work in recent days, and we wish to ensure that none interrupt our final days here." Callisto turned to Reyna, pride still gleaming in her eyes. "Reyna, daughter of Bellona, Praetor of New Rome, I offer you first watch." Reyna bowed respectfully, seeing this for the honor that it was. First watch in the sleuth was among the greatest honor, because it left the guard open to proving themselves as well as joining the revels later on. Reyna normally preferred mid-shift or last watch, because she wasn't the sort of person that liked the high points of parties. Jason and Reyna had often snuck away from their own parties to hide away and recharge for a while, but she wasn't about to deny such an honor, even if Callisto wouldn't mind. She gestured out to her sleuth, where Reyna saw a few familiar faces. "If you would prefer, you may choose your second from among my ranks." Reyna inclined her head again and smiled her Praetor smile at the people she faced. 

"Due respect, old friend, but I'll use one of my own." This wasn't really covered in the protocol that Reyna knew, but she didn't want to pull one of Callisto's ranks when she didn't know their strengths and weaknesses. Callisto beamed at her.

"I would expect nothing less." She said, and Reyna turned to Piper, half yearning to pick her, despite the fact that she had no training, and if a watch truly did become necessary, then Piper would be both in danger and a liability.

"Go have fun." She said, instead of 'come with me.' "But make sure Leo doesn't." She added, just to hear Piper giggle. She heard Leo sputter indignantly and her mouth twitched in a smile. Piper nodded and lead Leo into the forest, following Callisto and her sleuth. She turned to Coach Hedge, who seemed to be puffing his chest out to seem burlier, and Hazel, who was looking after Leo and Piper like she'd seen a ghost.

"Hazel?" She asked, bringing her friend back to the present. "You okay?" Hazel smiled, a bit too wide at Reyna.

"Dandy!" She crowed. Reyna nodded slowly, not believing her in the slightest.

"Coach Hedge, go watch over Piper and Leo. They're your charges, and I want them to stay safe." Coach Hedge saluted and jogged off, following the path that the sleuth had made.

"Hazel," Reyna began, but Hazel hunched in on herself slightly, and Reyna let the subject drop.

The night passed, growing darker still. Hazel had stayed quiet for longer than Reyna had expected from her friend, but finally she spoke.

"So," She began, and Reyna knew that tone. That was the "so you and Jason-" cue eyebrow-wiggling and crude gestures tone. Reyna hated that tone on principle, because for starters, no, and for seconds ew, and _why_  did no one ever believe them.

If Hazel was about to suggest that something was happening between her and Leo, then their newfound friendship would spontaneously combust. "You and Piper seem to be getting along well."

That... was not what Reyna had expected. The automatic response that she had formulated flew off to some dark corner of her mind.

"Uh," she said, intelligently. "I mean, yeah. I think so? I really..." Hazel waited patiently, while Reyna collected her thoughts. She was offering Reyna room to tell her the truth, so that she wasn't the only one who knew about it, so that she had someone to lean on. "I really do like her. I just, I don't know how she feels at all, or if she even likes girls?" Reyna shook her head, slightly shocked that she was having this conversation at all. She'd never even talked about girls with _Jason_  and he was arguably the best friend she'd ever had.

"You know," Hazel said, after a moment, "the school I used to go to was for people who were different. You would be surprised at all the things I saw. I knew more girls there who dated each other than there were boys enrolled. Sure it was, like, condemned or whatever, but so were the rest of us. And I wound up being the daughter of the king of hell." She snorted. "Oh, if Matron Theresa could see me now." She nudged Reyna deliberately, lingering so that Reyna could feel Hazel's friendship.

And there it was again, that strange sense of belonging, only this time it wasn't tied to memories of a girl long dead, and her sister who had given her up, it was tied to Hazel, and Jason, and the ragged group of demigods that they'd formed during their trip. Reyna felt her eyes mist over. 

"I-" She said. She stopped and cleared her throat. "Thank you, Hazel."

"And I wouldn't worry about Piper, either. If she doesn't like you, then it's her loss, really."

They sat in companiable silence after that, and another half hour passed before Reyna decided to return the favor.

"You know, I do have a question."

"Hmmm?" Hazel said, staring up at the movement of the leaves absently.

"What happened with Leo? Did he do something to make you uncomfortable?" Hazel had gone completely still at Leo's name, and if Reyna wasn't mistaken, then those were tears in her eyes. She shook her head wordlessly. She took a deep, shuddering breath.

"You know that I was dead, right?"

"I know that Nico became our ambassador because he brought you back from the Underworld." Reyna said carefully, putting an arm around Hazel as she sniffled.

"I died because my mom got too greedy. Her love for riches and beautiful things were what drew my father to her, initially, but... but after he left, she couldn't take it. She kept trying to get him back, to see her as worthy again. The fact that I can just...  _summon_  gemstones whenever I want to made her see me as an asset, not as her child. She didn't even care that the gemstones were cursed. As long as she got what she wanted, that was what mattered. It, ahem, it got us both killed." Hazel wiped at her face discreetly. "And that school that I told you about?"

"Yeah?" Reyna said quietly, when it became apparent that Hazel wanted an answer.

"Leo was there. Or, no, he wasn't. There was this boy called Sammy there. But I swear, Leo is his spitting image. Every time I look at Leo, I can't help but remember Sammy. He had this entire life that I didn't get to be part of, and Leo is living proof of that. The entire time I was in Asphodel, before the magic started to wear off on everyone else, too, I kept thinking about the fact that I let him down. I never got the life we were meant to have together, and I took that from Sammy, too. I died, and as far as he ever found out, I just disappeared." Hazel let out a sob that struck Reyna to the core. She reached out and tried to soothe the rough edges of Hazel's emotions. "He must have hated me."

"Hazel there isn't a person who has ever walked this Earth who could hate you." Reyna pulled Hazel closer to her. _Family is everything. We are all we need._  She heard Hylla's voice say in the back of her head. Strange that even after all of this time, she could still hear Hylla's voice clear as day. "None of that was your fault. A great deal of it was your mother's, but you are not to blame. And what your mother caused was inexcusable-"

"I bargained for her, too." Reyna blinked, both at the sudden empty tone of Hazel's voice, and the words she spoke. "I was supposed to get Elysium, and she was supposed to go to the fields of punishment for her greed and her treatment of me, and I _bargained for her life_." She spat. "I thought, maybe we could be together and fix things, and she would be my mother again. But that was before the magic stopped working, and I never saw her again. I had sidelined myself to an eternity of total boredom, and it wasn't worth it. I can see that now, but back then, an eternity by myself, a child in Elysium for saving the lives of maybe one hundred people by killing myself and my mother and those punks she was trying to bribe with *my life,*" The ground quaked slightly, but Hazel quickly got it under control, taking in deep, shuddering breaths.

"Saving her," Reyna began, carding her fingers through Hazel's hair, "just shows that you're the kind of person who is willing to do whatever it takes to save the people you care about, even if they were never going to do the same for you." Hazel said nothing, choosing instead to let Reyna comfort her in silence. "You know what might make you feel better, though? Instead of suffering in silence every time you so much as glance in Leo's direction, it might help if you talked to him. He might be able to make you feel better."

"Yeah." She said quietly, then, "Some guards we are." Hazel said at length, it was clear that she was trying for a joke, so Reyna laughed.

"It could be worse." Reyna said, "We could both still be dead." Hazel choked out a laugh.

"I keep forgetting you died, too."

"One day we'll both be able to forget about it."

When Callisto found them again, they were both sitting quietly, Hazel meditating to see if she could sense anything coming through the vibrations in the earth, at an offhand comment from Reyna, who probably should have mentioned where she got the idea, but didn't, because it was fun enough watching Hazel try it.

She sensed animals through the forest, and was even able to tell Reyna what she thought they might be based on step patterns, and she sensed Callisto as well, which, as far as Reyna was concerned, meant success.

They were relieved by Callisto herself and Tara, and that's when Reyna knew that Callisto expected no danger. She might not have been clairvoyant, or a legacy of Apollo, but she had a certain sense for when danger was coming her way. She lead Hazel back to the campsite and sat down beside Piper.

She had been able to sense Piper's moodiness from across the glade as the other members of the sleuth (and Coach Hedge) roared with laughter closer to the fire that they'd built. She watched as some of them walked off, presumably to resume their bear form and sleep until the moment came that the sleuth would move on.

"I thought I told you to have fun," Reyna said, teasingly. Piper's jumped at Reyna's sudden appearance and she looked up at the other girl. Carefully, Reyna sat in the grass beside her.

"I didn't really understand their stories. They keep talking about bears." Piper's tone was questioning, and it only took a moment for Reyna to stop admiring the way that the light from the fire played across her eyes and answer the unspoken question there.

"Well, they _are_ bears. Callisto, I'm not sure if you've ever heard of the myth, but she was turned into a bear by the gods. She was one of the first of the shapeshifters, and one of the few that the gods still looked upon with benevolence. Well, you know how the gods are. I don't know if I'd call it benevolence, but it certainly wasn't ire. You know godly ire, and if you don't it only takes a second to recognize it before you're a steaming pile of ashes in sketchers.

"Callisto, as it happens, was able to pass this gift on. She found people who called out to her as wanderers or lost souls and she helped them find a home in her pack. Generally it's a permanent thing, and it's always a one-time offer, because once you learn to shapeshift, you don't unlearn it. But she takes in anyone who needs her help, whether that means that they accept her offer of immortality and shapeshifting, or they just stay while they need to get their bearings. That second one, if you hadn't guessed, is what Hylla and I did."

"Who's Hylla?" Piper asked quietly.

"My sister. She's the leader of the Amazons, and she's amazing. But I haven't seen her since we left here and she dropped me at Camp Jupiter." Piper reached out and took Reyna by the hand.

"Well that was rude of her." Startled, Reyna barked a laugh.

"Yeah, it was."

 

They sat like that until the festivities died down, and one by one, people broke off to alternately sleep or pull pranks on those who were already sleeping. At least three members of the sleuth would wake up tonight with flowers braided in their hair. The sun rose, and Reyna realized that Piper was still holding her hand.

Reyna looked down at their linked fingers and Piper looked pointedly at anywhere but Reyna, too innocent to not know. Reyna's heart swelled. Maybe things wouldn't be ruined completely, Reyna thought, if she were to try...

"I think we need to find the others." She said instead. This was not the time. Maybe, after she found Jason, she could offer Piper a place with them at Camp Jupiter. Disappointment flashed across Piper's face, but she stood when Reyna did, anyway.

They found Leo and Coach Hedge near the fire pit, and decided that the best course of action was to ensure that they didn't find about the flowers and intricate braids for as long as possible. Leo's hair was short, but that hadn't stopped any of the cubs from braiding it, and Coach Hedge had at least four different kinds of flowers in the crown upon his head. Reyna leaned down and shook Coach Hedge by the shoulder, while Piper stood by Leo and crooned at him to wake up. Immediately, Coach Hedge's eyes snapped open, and the hazy mostly-awake state that Reyna had occupied melted away, leaving her feeling more awake than she had since she came back from the dead. She turned to Piper, her mouth slightly agape, because that felt like a spell, and it was absolutely coming from her direction. Piper's cheeks colored at Reyna's stare and she smiled a little sheepishly.

"People listen to me." She explained. It wasn't exactly the best explanation that Reyna had ever gotten, but now she had Piper's godly parents narrowed down to three options. Maybe four.

Reyna didn't try to force away the effects of the spell, because, really, her being awake right now could only help them. Together, the four of them struck out to find Hazel. An unsurprised Tara smirked at them when they brought the question to her, and she pointed them in the direction of the cave that the sleuth had discovered in the area. There, lying in the midst of a pile of sleeping bears, was Hazel. The tiny snoozing figure looked even tinier next to the massive animals she was surrounded by, but she didn't seem the least bit intimidated. Reyna gestured for the others to wait at the cave entrance, and picked her way through the mass of snoring animals. Hazel lay with her head pillowed on one bear with blue fur that had spots of white fur on it's head, like a crown, and Reyna knew enough to recognize her friend, even in bear form. She picked up Hazel, cradling the much smaller girl in her arms, and poked Callisto in the side with her toes. They had a mission to complete, and if she wasn't wrong, then this would likely be the last time that she saw Callisto.

She was going to say goodbye this time.

Callisto swatted at her sleepily with a paw, but Reyna dodged the swipe easily, dancing back before poking the sleeping bear again. Callisto cracked open an eye, and even without facial features, Reyna could see the irritation she felt at being woken. She also saw the moment Callisto realized that it was Reyna. A split second later, Callisto stood, still in bear form, and followed Reyna and Hazel outside.

The four of them, along with Tara and Callisto walked along the path they'd made the night before, slowly headed towards the B&B where Reyna knew Annie was still watching for them from her window. 

"Why does Hazel get to stay asleep?" Leo grumbled.

"Because she picked the safer spot." Reyna replied, trying not to visibly react when Piper laughed in response.

Callisto stopped just shy of the edge of the woods once the B&B was in sight and transformed back into her human form. She leaned down and pressed her lips to Reyna's forehead, careful not to crush Hazel.

"You always have a place with us, little one." She whispered. Reyna adjusted her grip on Hazel.

"Thank you for everything, Callisto." Reyna replied. She didn't really think that she would ever take Callisto up on her offer, and now she thought she understood why Hylla had left all of those years ago.

Callisto and her sleuth was home, but it wasn't their home. Her home was the hearth at Camp Jupiter, with Jason ruling by her side. She stepped away and Callisto seemed to understand. She turned and stepped over to Tara. 

"We will stay until sunset. I do hope you choose to join us."

And with that, she turned and melted back into the trees. 

One look at Tara told Reyna that she, at least, would be back to Callisto.

She let Tara stand stock-still for another moment longer. 

"Come on, let's go convince your mother to turn herself into a bear."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Callisto is a butch lesbian, sorry I don't make the rules.   
> *winks* come ask about the weird update schedule @scarletwix on tumblr. I promise it won't take me a year to update again. But, uh. Click that little "next chapter" button and you'll.... see why.... it took so long.......


	14. Relationship Drama

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd split this into two chapters but I have an aesthetic and a timeline to maintain. So, uh. Good luck and I'm sorry in advance.

Jason had a bad habit of becoming the center of attention, even when he didn't want to be. That was the hazard of being Praetor, he supposed. He was good at fielding attention, had to be, but right now, he really didn't need it.

What he needed was to get Nico to a doctor, and to get himself to a bed. A real bed, this time, not the chair he'd been sleeping in for gods knew how long.

Instead, he found himself immediately surrounded by half a dozen angry campers. Nico was drifting in and out of consciousness on his back, muttering on and off about Big Blue Horses. Or maybe big blue houses. It was kind of hard to tell. 

"Get Chiron!" One of the campers yelled, narrowing his eyes at Jason. He looked to be about Jason's age, of a sturdy build with dark hair and eyes like the sea after a storm. Jason glared back, shifting his weight so that Nico was more secure. He ignored the way his heart fluttered slightly as Nico buried his face further into Jason's neck. Now was not the time. The boy leveled his sword, clearly ready to impale Jason at even the slightest provocation, but not wishing to hurt Nico at all.

Jason couldn't help but wonder what their relationship was. "Drop him." The boy growled, clearly expecting Jason to simply do as he asked. Jason rolled his eyes, adjusting his grip on Nico in case he needed to make a quick getaway.

"Not likely. Let me pass." Nico shifted again, lifting his head up slightly as a shadow fell over them. Jason leveled his glare at the newcomer, a centaur, standing at about seven feet high. It would make flying away slightly more difficult if he had to outmaneuver a centaur with Nico on his back, but he'd be willing to try.

"Chiron-" The dark haired boy began, but Chiron's eyes were fixed, riveted even, on Jason's face. Jason stepped up, solidifying the air beneath his feet, wary at the intensity of Chiron's studious gaze. Nico tightened his grip further, muttering darkly when he realized Jason's feet were no longer on solid ground.

"Jason," Chiron began, sounding breathless, "You should be dead."

Silence rang through the circle, not a mutter to be heard, until the dark haired boy put his sword down, transforming it into something smaller and putting it away. Clearly he didn't see much point to killing someone if they were already dead.

"No," Nico said, at last, resting his chin on Jason's shoulder. " _I_  should be dead."

"We need a doctor." Jason added. "Please." Because it never hurt to be polite, especially, as he'd just realized, when one is talking to a being who had been training demigods for centuries.

And when one is outnumbered, but Jason cared less about that.

Another boy pushed through the throng, took one look at Nico, glared at Jason, and ordered him to follow.

Well, Jason figured, if it meant a better chance of Nico getting back on his feet sooner, he'd do as he was told. He couldn't quite get Chiron's words out of his head, though.

_You're meant to be dead_ , Chiron had said. Could it be that he'd been able to sense the contract he had made with the Lord of the Dead? Or did he mean something else by those words? Jason felt a chill run down his spine at the thought, but couldn't help but feel that he was missing something.

Chiron had known his name. He knew for a fact that he hadn't told anyone here who he was. At least not yet.

The boy he was following was shorter than Jason by nearly a foot, and, despite the clouds on the horizon, looked like he'd just gotten a fresh tan in the middle of summer. His dark hair was cut short and he kept glancing back to Jason and Nico nervously. Despite the aura of confidence he'd exuded when he'd first told Jason to follow him, he seemed to be rather nervous.

He lead them up the stairs of one of the cabins, similar in make to the one he and Nico had exited, but vastly different in style. Where Nico's cabin was all dark colors and decor reminiscent of both a gothic horror novel (of which he had read none, no matter what Reyna said) and the decor of the palace in the Underworld, this cabin was light and airy, cheery yellows and open windows blending with a hospital-esque aesthetic. The cabin was starkly cleaned, and in one corner, Jason could easily see cots that were currently set up as hospital beds. 

"Will!" The boy leading them cried, and Jason stumbled backwards. The acoustics in the building were amazing, and would have carried the boy's voice to the other side of the cabin easily, even if he'd only spoken a little louder. 

As it was, he had not just projected a little. Jason could see people all over the cabin slapping their hands over their ears and glaring in their general direction.

Another boy, closer to Jason's height, with a wiry build and curly hair that bounced like he was in a L'Oreal commercial ran towards them at top speed, clapping a hand over the younger boy's mouth before he could yell again.

"What have we said about projecting indoors?" The boy-Will, most likely-asked, his eyebrows raised pointedly.

"Not to do it?" Came the muffled reply.

"Exactly." Will sighed, gratefully, dropping his hand back to his side and turning to face Jason with a polite smile.

The smile died before the echo of the younger boy's cry had faded from the rafters. His eyes widened as he took in Nico's pale face, worry suddenly etched in lines on his forehead and around his eyes.

"Gods above, Nico, what happened?" Nico shrugged, so Jason figured that it was on him to supply the details. Of which he had three.

"He was attacked by a group of empousai and nearly bled out on his way back to the Underworld. Persephone did what she could, but he clearly needs more medical help than can be administered down there." Will turned his eyes to Jason, cold and undeniably angry. 

"And who are you?" He asked. His tone was enough to put a chill in the air of the previously warm room.

"Isn't it obvious? He's my guardian angel." Nico deadpanned. Will's expression soured further, and he shot Jason a dark look. Jason couldn't be sure, but he didn't think Nico noticed, considering since he was still talking. "He's supposed to be dead, he's keeping me safe, and he can fly." Jason really didn't know what to make of that, so he inclined his head.

"I'm Jason Grace. Hades has me watching Nico to make sure he doesn't get in any more trouble."

"See?" Nico's voice was muffled by Jason's shoulder again. Will's eye twitched at the sight and he gestured to where the hospital beds were located in the corner.

"Take him over there, then go wait outside." Jason didn't argue. If it got Nico standing and smiling again, he'd jump into the Styx. He did as Will bid, then let the younger boy lead him back outside. The boy surveyed Jason before shrugging.

"You can wait here if you want or you can go look around the camp. They'll send me to find you either way."

"You'd just let me wander around?" Jason asked, totally bewildered. He was an outsider. A few minutes ago they had him at swordpoint.

"Will trusts you, that must mean you're okay." Jason didn't have a chance to even begin to protest that he didn't think that Will trusted him in the slightest before the boy had hopped down the stairs and was gone.

Jason looked around the camp, taking in the sun that shone down on the cabin roofs, the wall of what appeared to be lava in the distance, and out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of movement off on the lake.

He figured, what the hell. If they wanted to interrogate him, they'd have to find him first.

He let his feet carry him along the path as his eyes roamed the length of the camp. It was beautiful, he had to admit, in a sort of savage, rustic way. In camp Jupiter, you kept your weapons sheathed at your sides or in the barracks until you needed to use them. Here he could see arms and armor scattered across the lawns as people in different cabins waited for them to air dry. He could see a pair in the distance trying to balance their swords on their noses and cackling as they jumped aside to avoid injury. 

It was so different from the world he knew. He was in awe of it, and the easy, carefree way that everyone interacted called out to him. 

This was the place that Nico called home?

Why was he ever anywhere else?

He heard a cry, and a slightly familiar voice shout "Grover!" but that was his only warning before someone was crashing into him, nearly knocking them both to the ground. If it weren't for the fact that he was of a much sturdier build than the other person, they likely would have hit the pavement and been right back into Will Solace's care. 

He caught the other person under the arms as they went careening backward after hitting him. It was a boy, much taller than Jason, as it happened, but wiry, with limbs that would fit better on a tree than on a person. His face had gone pale and his rasta cap was knocked askew on his head.

"Sorry." He blurted, his eyes wide as saucers. Jason kept a hand on his arm to steady him as the person who had shouted raced down the hill after him. It was the boy from earlier, the one with the miniaturizing sword. The boy slowed, his eyes narrowing suspiciously again as he approached. "You know how it can be with hooves and all." The other boy bleated out a laugh, and Jason looked at him, confused.

"Hooves?"

"Well, no I guess you wouldn't." Jason cast a glance down at his feet, where, indeed, instead of jeans and sneakers, the boy had fur and hooves.

"You're a faun?" The faun clutched at his chest in indignation.

"Excuse you," He protested. "I'm a satyr."

"He's the best damn seeker around." The other boy put in.

"Uh, sorry. I don't really follow?" The satyr harrumphed and straightened his cap before sighing and waving a hand.

"Percy said you were new here, so I won't hold it against you. It's not your fault many people's introduction to satyrs happens to be  _The Chronicles of Narnia_."

"Uh," Jason smiled ruefully, "Sorry, no, at Camp Jupiter we call, uh, satyrs, fauns."

"Well why would you do a thing like that?" The satyr blinked at him, curiosity overtaking his features."

"I never really thought about it?" Jason was out of his depth. He should have just stayed sitting on the steps of the cabin that Nico was being treated in. This was exhausting.

The boy snickered at his likely bewildered expression.

"You'll get used to being asked silly questions." He stated. "Sorry we got off on the wrong foot earlier," Jason didn't think that the boy sounded sorry at all, but he took the offered hand for the distraction it was. "I get a little protective of Nico."

"Well, you should. You're the reason he keeps running away." The satyr said matter-of-factly. The boy shot him a dark look.

"I'm Percy, I'm a son of Posideon. This is Grover, he's a nuisance."

"That's a big word for you, Perce." Grover drawled, his grin showing that he knew that Percy didn't mean a word of it.

"Annabeth got me word of the day toilet paper."

"Ri-ight." Jason said warily, looking back and forth between them. "I'm Jason? It's nice to meet you. Any friend of Nico's, you know?" He said, trying for cordial. He honestly had no idea what to say, but the knowledge that Nico kept leaving the camp because of this Percy guy made Jason wonder if they really were friends, or if he should be reaching for his sword to keep him away from Nico.

"So," Percy continued, and Jason didn't like that tone of voice at all. "You come from another camp? I thought Camp Half-Blood was the only camp for demigods."

"It's the only camp for Greek demigods. Camp Jupiter is the camp for Roman Demigods."

"There are Roman Demigods?"

"What, you didn't think the Greek gods got to have all of the fun, did you?" Percy blinked.

"You're not making fun of me, are you?" Jason felt a twinge of guilt. He had been, a little, but only because-

Well he didn't really know why.

"No, I'm completely serious." He lifted up his sleeve to show Percy the tattoo he bore on his forearm. Percy's fingers brushed absently across the necklace he wore. "I'm a son of Jupiter. The only son of Jupiter, actually. The lines are how long I've been training at camp. Everyone gets one." Sort of. He didn't want to confuse Percy, though. He was going to try and make friends here. He wasn't anyone special at Camp Half-Blood. He could stand to have a friend or two, even if it was unlikely he'd ever see them again after Nico was healed.

He'd go back to the Underworld and serve his sentence, and Reyna would prove herself, and they would both be back in New Rome dealing with Octavian before the summer solstice.

A wave of melancholy washed over him.

_I don't want that,_ a part of him whispered. It was immediately countered by Lupa's voice, snarling at him.

_What do you want, then, pup?_ An image of Nico flashed through his mind, quickly followed by an unmistakable longing for the life that the campers at Camp Half-Blood lived. It was disorganized and scattered, but it was carefree in a way that life in Camp Jupiter would never be.

He ignored the part of him that he knew had told him he wanted to be with Nico, because that was ridiculous. Once he was done being half dead, Nico would have no further obligation to be his friend. He clenched his jaw against the pain that shot through him at the thought. 

Percy looked up from his tattoo and met Jason's eyes.

"You okay, dude? You don't look so good." Jason plastered a fake grin on his face. It was his Praetor smile, and even wearing it here made him feel almost viscerally ill.

"I'm fine." He said.

Even Percy seemed to be able to tell that it was a lie. 

"So, Jupiter." Grover butted in, clearly trying to change the subject before Jason hurled all over his hooves. "That's like Zeus right?"

_No,_ came the automatic reply.

"Yeah," he said. They were close enough, despite the fact that Jupiter seemed to be crueler in nature, following in the pattern of all of the Roman gods. Percy's face brightened.

"That's awesome! We know another child of Zeus. She's a Hunter of Artemis."

"She used to be a tree, too, but that was kind of my fault." Jason blinked, slowly.

"I didn't know there were other children of Ju-Zeus." He had siblings. A momentary flash of memory enveloped him. Dark hair, blue eyes, and his sister's voice calling out to him as Juno claimed him as her champion.

His last memory of a normal life.

He pushed it away, casting all thoughts of Thalia from his mind.

Dwelling never saved anyone.

"No, just the one. And you." Percy said, still grinning. "So how do you know Nico?" They didn't know about Camp Jupiter, which meant that they didn't know about Nico's position as ambassador, or Hazel, and Nico might not thank him for letting it slip.

"I sold my soul to his father to save a friend of mine. If she can prove herself worthy of my loyalty, we both get to live, if not we die." Jason shrugged, like it was no big deal. Grover's mouth hung open, and Percy was looking at him like he was trying to tell him that he ate his mother alive. 

"The girl you saved, was she your girlfriend?" Jason reeled, halfway between laughter and gagging.

"Not in this life." He managed, "She's really... not into guys." He didn't know how to say that she had once declared that she was too gay to date him, no matter what tradition said about Praetors, and he had laughed until he'd cried, and then laughed some more because of the pure overwhelming relief that he wasn't alone in the world, or in his sexuality. Sure he was bisexual, but it was still the sense of knowing he had someone to talk to that had a similar experience to his. 

"Oh," Percy said, clearly not sure what else to say.

"She's family. I wouldn't be who I am today without her." Jason continued. "And she's a much better leader than I am, I would have driven the camp into the ground without her." Percy laughed at that, clearly relieved that he had something he could commiserate with. A shadow fell over Jason and he looked up to see the centaur from earlier smiling kindly at Percy and Grover. Percy rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Oh, yeah, and Chiron wants to see you." Chiron-and Jason was having trouble reconciliating the fact that he was in the presence of _the_  Chiron- turned that smile towards him, next. The smile turned slightly sad, and Jason remembered the stricken look on his face when he'd seen Jason earlier.

"Come with me, son of Jupiter." Chiron said, not unkindly, but with a hand on Jason's shoulder that said he would not take no for an answer. Jason had taken enough orders to know better than to argue.

"Nice meeting you." He said, raising his hand in farewell as Chiron turned him bodily away. Their pace, as they continued through the camp was leisurely, but Jason caught Chiron looking at him enough that he couldn't help but wonder if Chiron was stalling, trying to find proper words.

Jason decided, after a few minutes of the most awkward silence he'd ever participated in (and he'd once had a staring contest with a goddess, and he'd also shared many a council meeting with Octavian, he was no stranger to awkward silences), that he clearly was going to have to speak first.

"So I'm supposed to be dead, huh?" He asked, and Chiron started, surprised likely at his words and at the suddenness of them.

"I... I did not mean to alarm you. But I have heard of you, Jason Grace, and what I heard was that you died young. Well, younger." He revised, his tone slightly rueful. "I wish I had known you were still alive. It would have made some things better." Chiron paused for a moment, and Jason burned to ask what would have been better. "Then again, perhaps not. Things might have gone differently. And really, who is an old centaur like me to question the machinations of the gods?" The moment where Jason could have asked was gone, but it left him with the feeling that he was missing something. Something incredibly important. "So, that leads me to ask, where have you been, Jason?" The question was not one that he'd expected, ever. 

"Uh," he said, caught slightly off guard. "The Underworld, recently." Chiron looked at him sharply. Jason laughed, awkwardly. "You know what they say about children of Jupiter. We're impulsive and hotheaded." Understanding dawned on Chiron's face.

"Lupa." He muttered. Jason wondered how he knew the Wolf Mother. "I should have guessed. The least she could have done was tell me that you were alive. I mean, really."

"Hate to burst your bubble, but Lupa kind of does what she wants. Including but not limited to raising me to be a leader, like Juno asked her to."

"Everything is beginning to fall into place." Chiron murmured, quiet enough this time that Jason had to strain to hear it.

"Wait," he said, his brain whirring fast enough that Reyna would probably tell him she could hear it. "Is that why you thought I was dead? Because the wolves took me?" Chiron was silent for a moment.

"You must understand, Jason, that when Thalia came to us-" Jason stopped dead. 

"Thalia's here?" He said, his voice quiet. One hundred thousand thoughts whirled through his head.

_How long has she been here?_

_Is she here now?_

_Why didn't she look for me?_

_Why did she let the wolves take me?_

_It wasn't her choice, she didn't know._

_No one knew I existed._

And then one, high and clear and louder than all the rest.

_She think's I'm dead._

The world stopped. Jason was pretty sure he stopped breathing. He could hear Chiron trying to get his attention, but it was like they were trying to speak through a pane of thick glass. Jason couldn't understand his words, and he couldn't focus on Chiron enough to try and read his lips.

Jason's throat felt swollen, and he couldn't quite get the words out that he wanted to.

"I'm- I have to," He tried to say something, anything to politely excuse himself from Chiron so that he could break down in peace.

There was a roaring in his ears that he'd initially chalked up to his increased heart rate, but then he realized that Chiron wasn't speaking through panes of glass, he was trying to speak through gale force winds of Jason's own creation. 

Jason stumbled back, trying to get a grip on the winds, to slow himself down enough that the winds would follow suit. He shook his head to try to clear it, but nothing worked. He cast his eyes around, trying to focus on something, anything, to ground himself-

He didn't need to ground himself, he realized. He needed to do the exact opposite. He could always breathe better when he didn't feel like the ground was crumbling beneath him. 

The ground couldn't crumble if there was no ground beneath his feet.

Ignoring Chiron in favor of flying away was the easiest decision Jason had ever made. 

The winds died the moment his feet left the ground, and so he heard Chiron calling after him clearly. 

But he couldn't deal with that right now. And he wasn't praetor here, so that meant that he didn't have to. 

He discovered the hard way that he couldn't fly outside of the limits of the camp. 

Of course, he hadn't realized that this particular tree was in fact, the edge of the camp grounds, but he still crashed into what felt like an invisible wall and hit the ground with a thud.

His ears rang again, but this time it had nothing to do with the wind and more to do with impact trauma. He looked over at the offending tree and tried to muster up the energy to glare at it. 

It was a pine tree, he realized. The only one of it's kind this close to the camp. On one of the lower boughs hung what looked like a golden rug.

_The Golden Fleece?_ His brain supplied.

It took him a moment to recognize what was beneath the fleece. Coiled around the base of the tree, staring at him curiously, was a dragon.

Well, probably a dragon.

It was definitely serpentine, and when it yawned, Jason could see rows of gleaming white fangs, but there also weren't any wings that Jason could see. Jason generally associated dragons with wings. 

"Hi." He said, feeling silly the moment that the word left his mouth. "That's one heck of a barrier you've got there."

The dragon blinked, slowly, then put its head between the fold of its tail and fell asleep.

Jason looked at the tree again. It was so odd, to be the only one like it. And no pine needles littered the ground around the dragon, either. Jason raised his eyes to the higher branches. He felt the sudden overpowering urge to climb the tree.

_Don't climb it._

_There's a dragon right there._

_You will die._

He sat up and waited for the world to stop spinning. The dragon kept sleeping. 

He stood and surveyed the tree, waiting for it to stop calling to him so that he could go back to having a complete mental breakdown. 

He sighed, after a moment, pretending to be very put upon, and took a running leap at the tree.

He caught one of the middle branches and looked down. The dragon looked up at him, seemingly bored and went right back to sleep.

_Cushy gig._  Jason thought, hooking a leg up and over the branch so that he was seated with his back to the trunk of the tree.

He breathed in and out, deeply. A part of him wished Reyna were there. Her ability to control emotions had been a monumental help in the past when he'd had his panic attacks. He missed that, now. Where was she? He wondered. What was she doing? He leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes. Maybe he'd get lucky and when he woke up, this would all be gone. He'd tell Reyna all about it and she'd laugh and call him ridiculous, tell him to start writing novels if he had dreams that vivid.

Everything would be normal.

But Thalia wouldn't be alive. The thought made him clench his eyes shut even more tightly.

Thalia would still be gone, and Nico...

Nico wouldn't know him. Wouldn't care about him, at all.

He didn't want it to be a dream. He didn't want normal. After all of this, he wasn't sure he'd ever want to go back and try for "normal" again. 

Especially not if it meant leaving Nico behind.

Maybe he could convince Nico to go back to New Rome with him. It was a far sight better than the Underworld, and-

And what?

That was what Jason kept coming back to. "And be best friends forever" wasn't sitting quite right with his vision of Nico in his life in the future, because, for one thing, he already had a best friend, and Reyna wouldn't take kindly to being replaced.

But Reyna would love Nico. Jason thought. And Jason wanted nothing more than for the two of them to care about each other. 

He wanted Reyna back, and he wanted to keep Nico with him. 

He wasn't sure he'd get both.

He thought about Thalia again. Was it too much to hope for, that she really was alright? Chiron had said "when Thalia came to us" but that didn't necessarily mean that she was still okay. He knew that the life of a demigod was dangerous, almost absurdly so. And from the look of the other campers, she would have had to come not long after he'd been claimed by Juno. 

That had been a long time ago. Nine years, at least. 

She could, very easily, be dead. 

She could have died thinking that he was dead. 

He squeezed his hands around the branch of the tree at that thought. She wasn't dead. He couldn't think like that. She was a fighter, even when they were kids, if anyone could survive, it was Thalia.

He took another deep, calming breath, the way Reyna had coached him. At least he was safe in this tree. No one could ask him about his total breakdown if he never left it.

"Hey, flyboy!" a voice called. Jason's first thought was "I need to schedule another Star Wars marathon with Reyna," quickly followed by, "Oh wait, they're talking to me." He peered through the pine needles surrounding him, to where the dragon at his feet was hissing sharply at the small boy who had taken him to Will earlier.

_Nico,_  he thought, panic gripping him once more, before he took in the irritated but otherwise calm aura around the kid. He forced the panic out of his mind and walked off of the branch, manipulating the wind currents so that they carried him down to the base of the tree.

The dragon nudged the backs of his legs, baring its fangs at Jason in what was either a very menacing or a very trusting gesture. He decided that he was never going to really understand dragons.

"How did you tame Peleus?" the kid asked, glancing back at the dragon nervously as he lead Jason away.

"I didn't." Jason said truthfully. "I think he just felt sorry for me for bouncing off the barrier."

"Huh." The kid said. "It's just weird. Normally Peleus doesn't let anyone near Thalia's tree." Jason stumbled, his eyes widening. There was no panic at the sound of Thalia's name this time, no fear. This time he was overwhelmed by no small measure of excitement and the hope that this meant he'd see his sister again.

"Thalia's tree?" He asked, not bothering to conceal his curiosity. He heard Grover’s voice in his head again,  _ she was turned into a tree for a while, but that was kind of my fault. _  "Why is it called that?" The kid shrugged.

"It happened a few years before I got here. That's just what it's called, as far as I know. You should ask Annabeth about it. She's been here for years, she'll know all about it." He stretched out the word years, so Jason knew how long it had been since Annabeth got to camp.

"I'll ask her, then." He decided aloud. If she knew anything about his sister, then Jason needed to know. 

The rest of the walk back to the cabin, ("The Apollo cabin," the kid said, "Each cabin is dedicated to a specific god or goddess, and once you're designated as a child of Apollo or whatever, you stay in that cabin." The idea had seemed foreign to Jason, and would be very lonely, if he were to stay there. He was the only child of Jupiter that he knew about, without the legion, he would have been completely alone. Totally isolated.

It would have been horrible.) was spent in relative silence. The kid would occasionally skip ahead of Jason, his attention caught by something or someone else, and he would go off to investigate or eavesdrop, and then round back to make sure Jason was going the right way.

It only took about five minutes for the cabin to come back into view, and Jason could feel eyes on him. He straightened his back and put on his best "Resting Praetor" face. He wasn't about to let these people see him falter. Not when he didn't know how much he could trust them yet.

_Nico trusts them,_ That annoying part of his brain said.

_Nico is currently deathly injured._ He shot back, irritated.

Will was waiting outside, his expression carefully blank.

It looked... odd on him. In the few moments that Jason had become acquainted with Will, he had seen a great deal of emotion pass across that face. Seeing it so empty was unnerving. He started to worry about the news that Will had for him. Maybe he was wrong, and Nico was worse off than he'd thought.

Then again, maybe not, he decided, as Will inclined his head, gesturing for Jason to follow him.

Maybe Will just didn't like him.

He remembered the dark look that Will had shot him when Nico had called him his "guardian angel" and wondered if Will _did_  like Nico.

Something about that thought made Jason feel... Well more than a little uncomfortable.

His heart sunk. He knew that feeling of discomfort well, and he knew exactly what it meant. Everything fell into place.

He had a crush on Nico.

More than that, the feeling was far more intense than it had ever been before.

He was long past the stage where he probably could have talked himself out of it in order to keep his friendship with Nico secure.

He stayed silent, however, as Will led him over to Nico's bedside and handed him a stethoscope. Jason looked at it, slightly bewildered.

"What do you know about Nico's little curse?" Will asked, nonchalant, his voice pitched low enough that only Will, Jason, and Nico's currently sound asleep form could have heard.

"I know enough."

"Then you know that he shouldn't have a heartbeat, right." It wasn't a question, Jason knew, so he knew it didn't really require an answer. That was good for Jason because, well, no. Jason hadn't known that, but he wasn't about to give Will the satisfaction of knowing that. Jason shrugged his assent. "My sister, Amelia," Will continued, "came and checked on Nico before I could stop her. She reported that his heartbeat was thready but strong, and despite the volume of the wounds he'd sustained, she was sure he'd make a full recovery." Will turned icy eyes back to Jason. "Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong with that?" Another not-a-question. Jason didn't even bother to answer this one with a shrug. His heart in his throat, he bent down and checked Nico's pulse, first with his fingers at Nico's wrist, and the second time with the stethoscope that Will had thrust into his hands.

Both gave him the same answer.

Nico had a pulse.

From the story that Persephone had given him, and the slight rundown of the effects of the curse, Jason could safely assume that this was bad. This was very, very bad.

He looked at Will, and behind the righteous anger he'd likely inherited from the sun god, he could see worry for Nico.

At least there, they were on the same page.

Well, there, and if Jason was right about how Will felt about Nico, one other place.

"What do we do?" Will shook his head.

"I have no idea. I've never encountered magic like this before. I can deal with curses sent by the gods, I can deal with gods who have been cursed, I can deal with demigods who have cursed each other, because all of those have very distinct patterns and courses of action to reaction!” He said getting increasingly more irate. “But this?! I have no idea how to deal with this. It's an old curse, Jason. It's older than anything I've ever seen before, and I don't know how Nico can survive this." The hopelessness that gradually infiltrated Will's tone set Jason's teeth on edge. He felt like he was drowning in it.

"He's made it this far." Jason protested. "He'll make it until we can find a way to reverse the curse." Will still looked dubious. Jason looked back down at Nico's sleeping form, and he knew in that instant that even if he had to make a deal with Hades again, he'd make sure that Nico survived this. Nico would survive, and so would Reyna.

They had to.

Will was studiously pretending to not notice Jason staring at Nico, for which Jason was grateful, and the way his back was half turned left Jason plenty of room to make a quiet getaway.

"Let me know when he wakes up." He told the boy who'd come and got him. The boy shrugged and Jason figured that would be good enough. The kid was playing with some kind of hand-held device with a glowing triangle on the back. "What's that?" Jason asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. The kid didn't even look up.

"Annabeth invented it. It's like a DS, but it doesn't tell the monsters where we are." Annabeth. That was the name of the girl who knew something about his sister.

"Where can I find her?" The kid pointed to another cabin a few down the line. On it hung a banner of an owl holding an olive branch. "She's a child of Athena?" He asked, surprised. Minerva didn't have children. She was a virgin goddess, like Diana.

He supposed that the incarnation he knew could be vastly different. It almost certainly was, considering the dynamic shift between Pluto and Hades. 

He just had to keep an open mind. The kid looked up from his game at last, clear irritation on his face. Jason smiled ruefully.

He jogged to the Athena cabin, excitement motivating his footsteps almost as much as the worry he felt for Nico was. He put those thoughts out of his mind as he approached the door. He rapped his knuckles against the wood and waited. 

The door opened to reveal-

Percy. Percy blinked at him and the initial irritation that rose on his face washed away.

"Thanks for knocking. Malcom wouldn't have. What's up?"

"I'm looking for Annabeth? I think?" Percy narrowed his eyes.

"Why?"

"Er... I was told she might know something about- about a girl named Thalia?" Jason could feel excitement buzzing in his veins, mixing with his already-present nerves and setting his stomach to churning. Percy's face went slack, his eyebrows shooting up and his mouth falling open ever so slightly.

"Come inside," Percy said, stepping back so that Jason could walk through the open door. "She's currently designing a building and I can't get her to stop to eat, so maybe if you get her talking, I can sneak, like, a hot pocket or something into her hand."

"Hot pockets are disgusting Percy Jackson, don't you dare!" He heard a girl's voice yell from somewhere in the almost labyrinthine structure.

"Hot pockets are gifts from the gods, Annabeth, don't diss them. They're all I ate last summer."

"And your breath still smells like fake pepperoni." The girl was grinning, leaning over some draft paper as she looked up at them across the table she was kneeling on. "Hi, I'm Annabeth."

"Jason." Understanding dawned on Annabeth's face. 

"You're the one who came in with Nico. How is he?"

_ Probably dying from a curse that I can't tell you about. _

"He's healing, according to Will. I was never a medic, I'm not good at that sort of thing."

"So are you a ghost of some kind?" Her eyes were alight with curiosity, and Jason could see gears turning in her mind. She was, without a doubt, a daughter of Athena.

"No," He said, "Sorry to disappoint, but I have it on pretty good authority that I'm just an idiot."

"How so?"

"I made a deal with Hades to stay in the Underworld in exchange for my best friends' life. I can practically hear her swearing at me from here." Annabeth laughed once, sharply. "Um," He said, the question burning in his throat. "So, I was told by one of the Apollo kids that you could tell me about the tree at the edge of camp? About Thalia Grace?"

_Tell me she's alive,_ he didn't say, because he wasn't sure he could handle hearing otherwise. Slowly, Annabeth set down her pencil.

"Do you want details or the quick version?" Jason thought about the setting sun and pushed aside the part of himself that kept telling him to get all of the information about Thalia that he could.

"The short version,” He said, not sure if he could take hearing details about her death.

"Thalia was- is- my dearest friend." She began, seemingly unaware that Jason’s heart was in his throat at her words. “She sacrificed herself on the top of the hill to make sure that," Her eyes flicked to Percy, whose face was quietly thunderous. "another demigod, Grover, and I could get inside camp safely. Zeus turned her into a tree out of respect for her sacrifice. About four years ago that other demigod poisoned her tree, and when we used the Golden Fleece to heal the tree, it healed Thalia. She was restored to her former self, and she joined the Hunters of Artemis." Annabeth's slightly wistful expression morphed into one of unadulterated curiosity. “Why do you ask? Percy tells me you’re Roman, which came as a bit of a surprise, but thinking about it I’m not surprised that the Roman gods exist. I know the Norse gods do, it’s not a big stretch.” Jason’s heart had lifted the moment that he’d heard that Thalia was alive, was happy, and he was unbelievably grateful to Annabeth for being the bearer of such good news. He huffed a laugh, feeling exponentially lighter, and the moment he started smiling, he found that he couldn’t stop.

“She’s my sister.” Annabeth’s jaw dropped, and he heard Percy drop something from somewhere behind him. “I thought she was dead, because she was gone by the time Lupa said I was trained enough to look for her.”

“You’re Jason.” Annabeth breathed. “You’re  _ that _ Jason!” Annabeth’s eyes were quickly misting over and her hands fluttered frantically. “Di Immortales, we need to Iris Message Thalia. We have to tell her you’re alive!” Jason was right there with her excitement, he could talk to Thalia again! They were both alive, and- he winced.    
“Let’s not do that yet? I don’t want her to find out I’m okay only to have her realize that I’m living in the Underworld indefinitely. Especially if Hades changes his mind and decides he doesn’t want to give Reyna and I back.” He hadn’t thought about that before today. But now, having a reunion with his sister to look forward to, with a future that he hoped would include Reyna and Nico and both camps living in harmony, because he couldn’t give up Camp Half-Blood now that he’d seen it.

Annabeth’s face clouded over.

“We wouldn’t let him keep you.” She vowed. Jason felt a swell of gratitude at her words, but that feeling was quickly overshadowed by the memory of Hades’ threat. He didn’t know how long Nico had, now that his heartbeat was back.

"Thank you," He said, meaning it. "Um, one last thing. You're a child of Athena?"

"She imagines children and they come to life." Annabeth deadpanned. That was the answer to the question Jason was pointedly _not_ asking, but the answer was appreciated nonetheless.

"That- that's good to know, but I was actually going to ask you a wisdom question, actually?" Annabeth's cheeks colored.

"Oh, okay. Shoot."

"Do you know anything about curses?" He thought of Achilles, "Or binding spells?" Annabeth blinked and sat back, clearly thinking. Percy snuck a granola bar into her hand. Jason wasn't sure where he'd gotten it, but he watched, slightly mesmerized, as Annabeth absently started to eat it. Percy struck a victory pose and grinned at Jason. 

"No," She said at length, twisting the empty granola bar wrapper in her fingers. "I don't think the Athena cabin has anything like that in our library, but I know that children of Hecate collect magical texts. They might know something."

"I wouldn't go there now, though." Percy added quickly. It's a full moon tonight and I don't know if they're messing with everyone when they talk about full moon rituals, but I wouldn't risk it."

"Ah," Jason replied, startled. He hadn't considered children of Hecate existing, but he knew that there were sorcerers in the world (Reyna had told her about Circe and her island), but he didn't know why he hadn't considered consulting one to try and reverse Nico's curse. Or Achilles’, but even his promise to Achilles was secondary in the face of his worry about Nico. "I'll, um, I'll take your word for it. I should go check on Nico." He said. He knew that if Nico's condition changed, that Will would send someone to fetch Jason. Probably. He wasn't sure if his animosity towards Jason extended beyond the fact that he'd brought Nico to camp injured, but even if it didn't, he knew Will valued Nico's well being over all else. He was a doctor, and even if it wasn't Nico, he knew that Will would let him know. At least, Jason had to have faith in that. But he'd imposed upon the Athena cabin for long enough, and he knew that the longer he stayed, the more questions he'd have.

Also, if he was right, Annabeth was falling asleep. So he figured he should get out before Percy kicked him out.

He beat a hasty retreat, waving his goodbyes and stepping out into the night. A cool breeze hit him and the stars twinkled overhead. His eyes, almost unconsciously cast upwards into the sky and he sighed a breath of happiness. Nothing ever beat the real thing, he decided, shuddering slightly at the memory of the small slice of the sky in the Underworld. How Persephone contented herself with that, he was sure he'd never know.

But if everything went well, he'd get to stay with Nico for the rest of the year. Aboveground, too. The thought stretched his smile wider. 

He stepped out into the middle of the clearing and walked in the direction opposite of the Apollo cabin. He let the difference of each cabin he passed wash over him. There was no strict regulation here. He passed a cabin that was painted bright red, with decimated dummies on display out front. 

As he came to the mouth of the odd horseshoe shape, he noticed that the cabins branched out after exiting the horseshoe, like they'd had the initial horseshoe layout, and then realized they hadn't left enough space for the rest of the cabins.

He stood between two stark white cabins. The one on his left was in a classical grecian style, the one on his right had two giant peacock statues where the columns were on the one opposite. He looked up at the sky again.

"One to ten, how dead am I if I go in that one?"

Hera was not Juno. 

He was Juno's champion, not Hera's.

Hera would probably kill him dead by animating those giant peacocks. 

He spun on his heel and went to the cabin that was least likely to kill him.

The moment that Jason walked into Cabin one, he wished that he hadn't. 

It was entirely bare, the lone bed in the corner stripped. In the center was a giant statue of...

His dad.

His eye twitched, and he almost went to sleep outside, but he caught sight of something sitting along the back wall, out of sight of the statue.

He skirted the base of the statue, trying to avoid looking at it as best he could.

Behind the statue was a sleeping bag, balled up in an alcove.

Above it was taped a picture of a girl who looked like Annabeth, but much younger, in her grin was a gap where one front tooth should have been. A taller dark haired girl with a severe haircut and even more severe eyeliner was smiling next to her. The third person in the photo was a boy that Jason did not recognize. He had long sandy hair and a jagged scar on his face. Annabeth's words echoed in his ears. _Another demigod came to camp with us. He poisoned her tree._

Something in the back of Jason's mind told him that this was the demigod who had tried to kill his sister's tree, and had brought her back instead.

He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

His eyes drifted back to the girl in the middle, the one that he had recognized on sight.

Thalia looked exactly how he remembered her, in this photo.

He pocketed the photo, knowing he should probably leave it for Thalia, but not really willing to leave every part of his sister's memory behind with this severe looking statue.

He left the cabin and marched back up to Thalia's tree. 

He resumed his perch on the branch above Peleus and resisted the urge to talk to the dragon.

It wasn't the most comfortable, but he drifted to sleep relatively easily, his worry and exhaustion combining to knock him out cold.

That night, he dreamt of Reyna teaching a bear the waltz.

Jason decided that some dreams must just be dreams.

 

A decent six hours of sleep later, Jason's first conscious thought was _it's real,_  his second thought was _Nico,_  and his third thought was,  _dear gods, what's that smell?_

That smell, as it turned out, was dragon breath.

Sometime during the night, he had fallen from his perch on the branch and landed on Peleus. Sometime, likely shortly after that, Peleus had decided that he made a decent pillow.

The dragon's head rested on his chest, breathing deeply, and Jason wondered how he hadn't woken himself up when he fell. 

Had he really been that tired? He thought back, to try and discern when the last time he slept was, but he realized that he truly couldn't be certain. 

Dragon breath, he decided, especially in the morning, was at least 300 times worse than regular morning breath.

Gingerly, he extracted himself from beneath the dragon and stood, surveying the camp as the dawn rose.

He'd done this many times from the pavilion at Camp Jupiter, but never had it felt like, well, _this._ He couldn't place the feeling, the odd sense that this camp called to him in a way that Camp Jupiter never had. He wasn't sure if it was because he knew that his sister had once called it home, or because Nico occasionally did, but there was a degree of something enchanting about the camp itself.

"Missed you at the bonfire, last night." A friendly voice called. A boy about his age was scrabbling up the hill. He turned and reached behind himself, pulling a girl he could have sworn he'd seen before up behind him. Her dark hair was curled gently around her face, and though her eyes were locked on him, he could see just from looking at her that she was blind. Jason made his way towards the pair, befuddled.

"Sorry, I don't know much about camp."

"That's one reason most campers spend their first night in the Hermes cabin," The girl said kindly, "They get you acclimated." She cocked her head to the side, as if looking Jason up and down, but her head didn't move, and he was still certain she was blind. "But you already know your godly parent." Jason blinked, surprised. The boy laughed.

"Sorry for my sister. Kendra, stop reading Jason's mind." The girl, Kendra, shrugged.

"I'd apologize, but even your dreams are loud. How does your friend Reyna know the waltz?" Jason shook his head, trying to make sense of this, and then shook it again.

"She doesn't? I don't think?"

"Mm. Figurative." Kendra muttered, casting her eyes to Jason's feet. Her brother stepped in front of her, closer to Jason, and stuck out a hand.

"Sorry again, she doesn't see much use for tact, since she can ask a question and find the answer herself before you even open your mouth. I'm used to it, but only because I've had her stuck in my head since birth. I'm Trevor."

"That was a lot of information without a lot of explanation, Trevor." Jason pointed out.

"We hear you’re interested in curses.” Kendra looked back up, to the left of him, beaming. 

“We just happen to be experts on the subject.” Trevor continued for her.

Sure, why not.

“Why, exactly are you interested in curses?” Jason couldn’t help but ask. Kendra snorted in amusement.

“We’re children of Hecate.” She said, as though it should be obvious. Jason thought about the unique ability she’d shown, to read minds, and figured it probably should have been obvious. “Children of Hecate are invariably drawn to all kinds of magic. We have a brother who is a kitchen witch. He cures everything from poisons to boils. Unless you’ve pissed him off.” She added that last almost as an afterthought.

“Also makes great tiramisu.” Trevor remarked dryly, smiling at Jason reassuringly.

“Another one of our siblings deals entirely with necromancy.” Kendra continued with a giggle. “He’s almost as enamored with that son of Hades as you are.” Jason frowned at her words, wanting to protest that he  _ wasn’t _ enamored, but he supposed that that wasn’t true. 

He was kind of enamored with Nico, and he was well on his way to worse. Or better, depending on how you looked at it. And depending on whether or not Nico felt the same. 

Trevor smiled at him and Jason couldn’t help but feel like he was reading Jason’s mind, too. 

“Well,” he said, clearly trying to change the topic for Jason’s sake. “Who’s up for some good, old-fashioned curse work?” 

Jason stood a little straighter.

He followed the pair back to the Hecate cabin, a beautiful building that shimmered, looking as though it were carved out of multiple materials at once. 

“It’s the Mist, Jason.” Trevor said, seeing the way his eyes flicked around in an attempt to focus on the cabin. “It can make the cabin difficult to focus on, but if one of us really wants to, we can make it look like whatever we want you to see.”

“That’s.... Terrifying.”

“Our kid brother made it look like a McDonald’s for a month straight, once.” Trevor continued with a reminiscent smile. 

Jason decided to stop trying to discern features on the cabin, instead focusing on Kendra and Trevor. He fell back to follow their lead. 

Jason was slightly worried that, given the nature and age of the curses, they wouldn’t be able to find anything, but once inside he knew he needn't have been worried. 

This cabin was missing the grand architecture and planning that had gone into the Athena cabin, but if he were a betting man, he’d say that the piles and stacks of books scattered on the floor and in the bookshelves equaled those in the cabin of the goddess of wisdom herself.

And when Kendra and Trevor stood on top of one of the bunks and pushed aside some drying herbs to pull down another stack of books from the ceiling, Jason realized that he should never underestimate the twins. 

Jason wasn’t sure how long the three of them discussed the curses in the books, Kendra’s fingers flying across pages that translated to braille at her brother’s whispered request, Trevor flipping page after page in a hypnotic dance, and Jason, doing his best not to fall behind. 

When Kendra’s fingers would get tired, Trevor took the book from her and began to read aloud.

It was late in the day when they came across a way to modify the binding curse that trapped Achilles. 

Of course, it would have gone much more quickly, were it not for the sheer number of binding curses that apparently existed.

Jason was, frankly, appalled by it. 

“Will this work, if I do it?” Jason couldn’t help but ask, his fingers hesitant in their grip on the pencil as he copied the instructions to use to alter the curse.

“As opposed to?”   
“Well, I’m not a child of Hecate,” Jason continued, stilling his actions and looking up at the twins earnestly. Kendra snorted.

“Of course it will, Jason. Magic isn’t about birthright. If it were, no one would be able to do it. Magic is about intention.” Jason blinked, surprised by her answer, though he supposed that he shouldn’t have been.

“And the other?” Kendra asked, when Jason was done writing down the spell. Jason hesitated, not sure what, precisely, to divulge. 

_ This is to save Nico’s life. _ He reminded himself. 

Slowly, Jason began to explain. Well, he began to explain what he knew. This was not much.

“All I know is that the spell changes, um, depending on the case. It can.... It can take away heartache, and render the enchanted person incapable of dying of mortal wounds. But, depending on what the spell is cast for, the curse varies.” As he spoke, he looked down at his hands, feeling as though he were treading dangerously close to betraying Nico. This meant that he missed the twins going pale and Trevor reaching out to steady Kendra with a hand, his eyes going to the far side of the cabin. “In this particular instance, the person that the spell is cast on can’t fall in love.”

“Or it kills him?” Kendra asked, her voice flat. 

“But not before doing something awful, of course, like, say, returning past heartache to him a certain number of times over?” Trevor continued.

“Tenfold.” Jason confirmed, befuddled.

“Watch the door,” Trevor said. At this point, the three of them were the only ones in the cabin. It only took Jason a millisecond to realize that Trevor had to be talking to him. He turned to survey the closed door.

“Brady doesn’t know that we know.” Kendra said quietly. The atmosphere in the room had quickly become stifling. “The spell you’re talking about is supremely old magic. It killed Brady’s father.” Kendra spoke matter-of-factly,  as if this weren’t an earth-shattering revelation. 

As if she weren’t talking about her half-brother. “Hecate granted him a favor, because he had the sight, and he had the forebearance to be in the right place at the right time. But,” Kendra’s voice went quieter still, revealing the sounds of Trevor shuffling through something behind Jason. It was the only sign that she gave that this was getting to her. “He fell in love with her. Hecate was heartbroken, of course, after it happened. And, well: Brady was the only one of our siblings to be brought to camp by our mother herself.” Kendra’s voice was sad, but not from jealousy. It was a sadness borne of feeling the weight of a tragedy. 

Jason heard Trevor come back, and turned to see him holding a tattered notebook in his hands. 

“Brady’s dad kept a journal of all the spells that he and Hecate worked on, after the first one.” Trevor put emphasis on the last three words, so that Jason would have no doubts as to what spell Trevor was talking about. “Brady marked the spells and what breaks them with different colored tabs. He doesn’t mind us using the spells, or borrowing the book, but...”

“He wouldn’t take it kindly to know that there was someone else out there under the influence of this particular curse.”

“And that’s putting it mildly.” Trevor handed the notebook to Jason, releasing it before it had even settled in Jason’s hand. 

Jason flipped to the first marked page. 

The details of the curse were the same as the ones he knew, heartbreak, impossible love (and Jason had to raise his eyebrows at that) the feelings becoming a physical thing, embodied in a small gemstone that had to be protected. If the stone was damaged, the soul risked being destroyed entirely.

And Jason kissed that theory goodbye.

_ As near as I can translate,  _ the journal read,  _ if there were any way to undo the spell, in the event I were to fall in love again (not that that’s all that likely), what it takes is a selfless confession (? this word doesn’t exist in English. Hecate is being no help here) of love.  _

_ Breaking the spell, according to Hecate, is easier than breathing. _

_ I think Hecate’s dictionary might be a little outdated, because falling in love and saying so... well, I’ve never heard of it. _

_ Turns out, though, I can’t even be the one to confess. It has to be someone else confessing their love to me. _

_ And if that’s not the biggest load of centaur shit I’ve ever heard, I’ll eat my heartstone. _

A selfless confession of love?

Was that even possible? Jason had to side with Brady’s dad, he’d never considered a confession to be selfless. If you were telling someone you loved them, you expected  _ something _ else back, whether it was reciprocation, or just a chance to prove it. Jason couldn’t figure out what a selfless confession of love could be. 

He shut the notebook and handed it back to Trevor.

“Thank you.” He said, and he meant it. “This has been very helpful. I really appreciate it.” But turns out, saving Nico is hopeless, he didn’t say. But I don’t know where I’d even start.

He wanted to scream.

Kendra put a hand on his arm.

“The answer might be closer than you think,” She said, with a smile that spoke volumes. 

Her words stirred something in him. A vague understanding-

But he didn’t love Nico. Did he?

And how could his confession, if he did, be anything near selfless, now that he knew why he needed to do it?

Hope dropped like a stone to the pit of his stomach.

“Ricky is looking for you.” Kendra continued, quietly, kindly. “Will sent him to fetch you, but you weren’t in the tree. I suspect that that’s our fault.”

“Thank you,” he said again, standing hurriedly. Trevor reached out to steady him when Jason wobbled.

“Kendra’s right.” He said, and pushed Jason to the door. He heard Kendra laugh as it fell shut behind him.

“I always am!”

He wandered back to the Apollo cabin in a daze.

How could he keep his promise, now? He supposed he could tell Will, see if Will would confess to his feelings, but Jason didn’t even know if his hunch about Will was correct. The thought of Will confessing to Nico, of Nico falling in love with Will in return, filled him with an emotion that felt too much like despair to be anything else. He knew that his feelings for Nico....

They stretched far beyond the expected.

If Jason  _ wasn’t _ in love with Nico, he was close. He took a deep, shaking breath to steady himself, and walked into the cabin.

Nico was awake. Jason could see him standing in a corner, listening to Will, mid-eye roll as Jason took in the room. 

His heart soared.

Nico was alive. He was okay. He was  _ standing _ !

But maybe not for long.

Nico caught sight of Jason and a small smile took form on his mouth.

Jason found himself beaming in answer.

Nico had that effect on him. How he hadn’t noticed his feelings sooner- 

Well, Reyna did always say that he was hopeless with his emotions. 

“How are you feeling?” Jason asked, when he got close enough. He wanted to reach out and pull Nico into his arms, but he knew that Nico was iffy on physical contact on his best days. 

“Dandy.” He replied, “Can’t you tell?”

He certainly did look better, his skin had shed both the greenish, poisoned tinge that it had held, and the pallor that the underworld provided. He looked healthy. He looked as far from death as Jason had ever seen him.

“Topside looks good on you.” Jason teased. Nico snorted,

“So does not dying, I’m sure.” Will cleared his throat, reminding the other two of his presence. Nico’s cheeks tinged slightly, almost unnoticeably.

“I’d like for Nico to stay here for another day or so, just to ensure that the full effect of the empousai venom has left his system.” Nico opened his mouth, clearly about to protest, but Jason jumped in, not willing to let Nico jeopardize his health for whatever half-baked reason he had.

“That’s a good idea, Will.” At Nico’s glower, Jason hurried to add, “Is he allowed to leave this cabin, at least?”

“Not without his guardian angel.” Will said, jokingly, and whatever ill-will he’d been harboring for Jason was gone. Jason wasn’t sure but he had an inkling that Nico standing and smiling had something to do with it. Nico’s brow furrowed.

“What?” He asked, a moment before his eyes went wide and his cheeks flushed in earnest. Will cackled and Jason saw the humor, laughing despite the sudden, screeching halt of his heart at the sight. Nico groaned and Jason coughed to hide another chuckle.

“In all seriousness,” Will continued, “I’m making both of you eat, immediately. When was the last time either of you had a proper meal?” Jason opened his mouth, thinking it was probably before Reyna died, but Will held up a hand to cut him off. “On second thought, don’t answer that. It will just worry me.”

As if on cue, a horn blew, and Will maneuvered them both through the cabin and back outside. Will kept talking, even as Jason found himself shocked by the strength in the son of Apollo’s grip.

“I don’t know how food works in the underworld, but I’m certain neither of you are eating enough of it.” He declared.

Who was Jason to argue?

At the meal, he followed the lead of the other campers, scraping food off of his plate as a sacrifice to the gods.

He did notice himself garnering a few looks, though, as he turned his plate and did it again.

He answere only Nico’s unspoken question.

“Juno is my patron. I have to honor her.” Nico nodded, but didn’t pry. Jason followed him to the table and spent the meal alternating between eating and sneaking extra food onto Nico’s plate.

He had almost died, after all.

As it happened, Nico slept to the majority of his observation day, and Will only came to make sure he hadn’t fallen and died once.

“I figured he would.” Will said when he finished taking Nico’s vitals, all of which Nico slept through. “He was still exhausted.”

“Yeah, near-death experiences have that effect on people.” Jason agreed.

“You’ll, uh, you’ll make sure he stays safe down there, right?”

“If Hades keeps his promise, I’ll be making sure he’s safe wherever he goes. He might get sick of me, but as long as I can keep him alive...” Jason shrugged. Will looked at Nico’s sleeping form.

“He won’t.” Will said quietly. “He won’t get sick of you.” Jason wasn’t sure if it was the sincerity in Will’s tone when he said it, or the quietness that filled the room after his declaration, but Jason, for just a moment, found that he believed it.

Will left before Jason could think of any sort of reply.

Jason stretched, feeling his joints pop and settle into a more comfortable position.

He was very out of shape, he realized, and when he got out of the underworld, Reyna was going to kick his ass in three seconds flat.

He was in the middle of the quietest workout routine of his life when Nico woke up.

“You know,” Nico’s voice sounded strained, but that was easily explained by the exhaustion still settled in his eyes. “You know we have training grounds, right?” Jason grinned sheepishly.

“I wanted to be here when you woke up.” Jason admitted. Nico made a face that was fairly inscrutable.

“What time is it?” Jason shrugged.

“Late afternoon?”  Nico’s eyebrows shot up and he sat up quickly. Jason rushed over and placed a hand on the shoulder to study him when he wobbled.

“You needed your rest, Nico.” Jason reminded him.

“I just… I don’t like to say at camp for very long.” Nico grumbled, Jason had guessed as much. In fact, knowing the details of the curse, as he noted, Jason had a sneaking suspicion that whatever (or whoever) Nico had cast the spell to avoid had something to do with the camp.

So Jason didn’t ask why Nico wanted to leave in such a hurry. The question paled in importance when compared to the questions that really plagued Jason’s mind.

“Why did you do it?” He asked, loud enough that Nico couldn’t have pretended not to hear. Nico went still, and Jason knew that he understood exactly what Jason was asking. The skin at the corners of Nico’s eyes tightened.

“A-” Nico sighed and started again. “A few years back, my sister and I got brought to camp. By Percy and Grover. And Thalia.” Jason tried not to give any sign this meant something to him. This was about Nico, not about him. “And… The hunters of Artemis.” Nico’s voice sounded pained, and his hand was drawing rapid patterns on the fabric of his pants. Jason opened his mouth to tell Nico that they didn’t have to do this, Nico didn’t have to tell him, he shouldn’t have even asked, but Nico looked up at him, and behind the pain was a quiet plea that Jason just listen. 

It occurred to Jason that he was the first person Nico had ever explained this to. He sat back and listened. 

“It was an eventful day.” Nico tried for a wan smile. “But then my sister had apparently had enough of watching me after, what, sixty years? Yeah. Sixty years. So she decided to join the hunters.”

“Um,” Jason said, because sixty years?

“We got trapped in a casino where time, essentially, didn’t pass. We didn’t age, we thought we had barely been there for a month or two, but when we got picked up by Alecto, over sixty years had gone by. A lot of our old friends are dead.” He said it with a nonchalance born of  practice. “It was bad enough, her leaving me, but I could’ve gotten over that.” Nico’s hands were shaking, and Jason wanted nothing more than to comfort him, to tell him he didn’t have to say any of this, but he was kind of terrible at emotions.

He didn’t mention the fact he was incredibly confused, because Hazel was fine, wasn’t she? She was back a Camp Jupiter.

“And Percy promised to keep her safe, so I blamed him for the longest time. But I blamed him…” Nico drew in a shuddering breath, and Jason didn’t even hesitate before reaching over and taking Nico’s hand. Nico leaned into him, his words muffled in the shoulder of Jason’s shirt when he spoke again. “I loved him.” Nico fell silent, and Jason could feel the terror radiating off of him in waves. Jason shifted and pulled Nico into a one armed hug.

“So when he couldn’t save your sister-” Jason shook his head.  “I’m so sorry, Nico. That must’ve been terrible.”

“It got worse, though, when I got that dream.” Jason knew the dream that Nico was talking about. It was the one that had led him to Camp Jupiter, the one that had told him to find Hazel and save her. Jason had never wondered how she had died, but- something wasn’t adding up here. Hazel had admitted to him that she’d died in the 40’s, it sounded like Nico was saying that she had died only a few years ago.

“I thought that the goddess, whoever she was, was talking about Bianca.” The pieces clicked into place. Of course Nico wasn’t talking about Hazel, Hazel was his half sister. “All she said was ‘your sister needs you,’ and… I’m not proud of it, but realizing that wasn’t Bee... It was like losing her all over again. I almost didn’t get to Hazel in time.”

“So you cast the spell,”

“To stop loving Percy.  And to stop missing Bianca. The second part of the spell didn’t happen. I still miss her, but it hurts less. They say that’s supposed to happen?”

“Who says?”

“Pretty much every ghost I’ve ever talked to.” Jason had to laugh, Nico smiled at him gratefully.

“So, if someone broke the spell, would you love Percy again?” Nico was silent for a moment.

“I don’t think there’s enough room in my heart for Percy, anymore.”  He admitted, his voice a harsh whisper. Jason felt his traitor heart skip a beat. Nico must be falling in love with someone. His heartbeat had returned, which precipitated his heart itself returning to him. Jason couldn’t smother the part of himself that wanted it to be him. But he couldn’t say that. Not now. He couldn’t let it be him, because he’d never forgive himself if he were the reason Nico’s heart stopped for good.

“Hungry?” Jason asked, because his head was too full of all the things he wanted to say.

“Never.” Nico said.

“Too bad. Come on.” Jason is going to find them (Nico) something to eat if it meant flying them to the nearest fast food chain.

He was in luck. The nymphs who had served them the night before dumped enough food to last Nico a month over his head, and then had  the harpies stand guard while Nico ate. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who worried about Nico’s eating habits.

Of course, when he had finished eating, Nico insisted on leaving immediately.

“Nobody cares if I say goodbye, Jason.” He protested for the third time.

“I can think of three, no four people, just off the top my head.” Jason said. “I can list them, if you’d like.” Nico groaned, and Jason took that as the go-ahead. “Will,” Nico snorted.

“Just because he doesn’t want me to die-”

“You’re proving my point. Also, the boy from the Hecate cabin,” Jason had caught him staring at Nico earlier, and the nearest descriptor Jason could come up with had been ‘besotted.’ Nico rolled his eyes. “And Annabeth worries about you. So does Chiron. So do I.” Nico’s eyes softened. “You tell me you were leaving, wouldn’t you?” Jason gave Nico his best wolf cub eyes and Nico ducked his head to hide a smile.

“I guess I’d tell you.”

“Great!” Jason chirped. “I won’t make you say goodbye, but at least wave to someone.” Nico turned to face him, raising an eyebrow. Jason caught sight of the small smirk that he was hiding, and caught Nico’s hand before he could raise it all of the way. “Not me!” Jason said, completely incapable of holding back a laugh.

“But you’re the only person I want to wave to!” Nico protested, and Jason felt himself flush, his heartbeat turning erratic. He dropped their hands, but didn’t let go. They were almost back to the Hades cabin, anyway.

“Fine, you win! Let’s go.” He said, but even his voice sounded too happy.

By the gods, they were only holding hands! He had no reason to be this happy.

“Actually,” Nico said, stopping them outside of the door to the Hades cabin. “Let’s- let’s not go back, yet. I want to go somewhere else, first.” Jason blinked, slightly surprised. Nico wasn’t quite looking at him.

“Where?” Jason prompted. Nico twisted his fingers into Jason’s more tightly.

“I-I want you to meet my sister.” The other sister, Bianca. The one he couldn’t stop missing.

Jason felt a smile stretch across his face.

“Lead the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How does it feel to be bombarded with OCs? I would apologize but I love them and they're integral to the plot. Speaking of! Plot! Look at that! It's a candlenights miracle!!   
> Also, I apologize to all of you who have commented that haven't received a response. I am... a comment hoarder. I read them over and over and over, and then respond so much in my head that I never.... actually respond. But I see you! And I love all your comments! And one of you actually guessed the ending and I am very proud of you but we're not there yet so I'm not going to tell you what it is or who you are! But I'm proud of you!! I love all of you so much, you are very very wonderful readers.


	15. The Golden Rule

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A much shorter chapter! I can hear your various sighs of relief from here!

Convincing Annie had wound up being easier than Reyna had expected. It probably didn’t hurt that Reyna was able to testify to “Cal’s” character, and was living proof that the two of them could travel for a while and still leave.

Annie, when she looked at Tara, seemed to see that this was not a decision that was going to be reneged. Annie gave them bags full of food and actual directions to the bus stop. The  _ real _ bus stop, not the haunted one that Coach Hedge had lead them to the other night.

Reyna had never seen something more beautiful than the dim light of the grimy bus stop.

And, well, getting on the bus had been ever so slightly more difficult, but coach Hedge had given them a rundown on using the Mist.

Hazel had gotten it immediately.

“What fools these mortals be,” she whispered to Reyna as the bus driver took the stones that Hazel used to solidify the images of bus passes in the driver’s mind. In fact, even Reyna was having a fair amount of trouble discerning the rock beneath the image that Hazel had conjured up.

It was a fantastic illusion, Reyna thought, immensely proud of her friend. Argentum clambered onto the bus, and, much like last time Reyna had attempted to bring him onto public transport, no one took any notice. Hazel shoved past coach Hedge and sat pointedly next to Leo, who looked, frankly, slightly terrified. 

‘Help,’ He mouthed. Reyna pretended not to notice, pressing her fingertips lightly against Piper’s back to keep her from stopping and asking what Hazel was doing.

“My name is Hazel Levesque.” Hazel said, loud enough that the passing Piper and Reyna could hear. Coach Hedge was still up talking to the driver about proper bus safety protocol.

“ Oh Dios mío. ” He muttered, and Reyna pressed her fingertips more firmly against the small of Piper’s back and maneuvered her to the empty seats that were out of earshot.

“What’s that about?” Piper asked, when they sat and the bus began to chug along. Reyna chose her words carefully.

“Demigods never get easy lives. Well, almost never. But Hazel got quite a bit of bad luck. She, uh, she knew a relative of Leo’s, she thinks.  They were friends. And she wants to know if he is… Okay.” Reyna wasn’t sure what all Hazel was okay with her revealing, but she felt safe enough telling Piper that much.

“Oh.” Piper said, surprised. “I didn’t know Leo had any family left, aside from his aunt. The, uh, the Wilderness School is generally for hopeless cases, like me, or people whose families can’t keep up with them.” Piper laughed, but there was no humor in it, “But that’s a nice way of saying ‘don’t want to put up with them’.”

“You’re anything but hopeless.” Reyna said, unable to stop herself. Paper beamed, and Reyna felt a swell of immense happiness at the sight. Then Piper’s face darkened.

“Tell that to my dad. Or, well, tell that to his receptionist, anyway.” Piper grumbled.

“Give me the address and I will. Even better, I can have my sister ship something nasty straight to her door.” A smile tugged at Piper’s lips, and she twirled her braid around one finger. 

“Odds of getting a box of live crickets to ship right to her desk?” She asked quietly.

“Amazon prides itself on customer service. I’m sure Hylla could come up with something.” Reyna smiled at Piper, and was pleased to see Piper smile back. “But I’m not sure what would be a better gift, a box of live crickets or box full of dead ones.” Piper giggled, clearly imagining this stuck up receptionist’s face in either situation. The sound filled  Reyna’s heart and stopped the breath in her lungs.

Piper was so beautiful. With her purposely chopped hair and her dirty, tattered snowboarding jacket...

She may well have been the most beautiful girl that Reyna had ever seen.

_ “You should talk to her,” _ said Hazel’s voice in her memory. 

_ The worst she can do say no. _ Reyna reminded herself.  _ And telling her she’s beautiful and you’d like the opportunity to get to know her... That wouldn’t really ruin everything, would it? _

Reyna opened her mouth to say as much, and got as far as “Piper-” Before the bus lurched and ground to a halt.

Reyna reached out to steady both herself and Piper, and looked out over the bus. Hazel was rubbing her forehead and glaring directly at... Coach Hedge. Whose hand was still pressed firmly on the emergency brake button. Coach Hedge said something to the driver, who looked half irritated and have bemused, and opened the door without another word.

Coach Hedge hopped out, and Reyna sighed, stood, and held out a hand to Piper.

“Splitting the party always ends in tears.” She said with a shrug, when Hazel raised inquisitive eyes to her. Leo snickered.

Slowly, the group got off of the bus, not sure if they were entirely prepared for whatever trouble Coach Hedge had found them.

And what Coach Hedge had found was a town on fire, figuratively speaking.

Well, mostly figuratively speaking.

“We’re not firefighters, coach,” Piper sighed as the town came into view.

“You kids saying you don’t feel that? That malevolent energy?” Hedge turned to Hazel.

“It’s... Well, it gives  _ me  _ the willies, to be frank.” Hazel admitted, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away from the town. Coach Hedge seemed satisfied by this. He pointed at Hazel, as if to say, “see? She gets it! At least one of you posers has proper instincts!”

The bus squealed away.

“So, what’s our next move, then?” Leo asked, watching the bus leave, forlornly.

“We’ve got to ask for directions, obviously.” Coach Hedge said, gesturing to a little ways down the road, where a despondent looking man stared after the bus. Reyna wasn’t sure if he wanted to be on the bus or if he’d been planning to step in front of it.

She didn’t think he knew, himself.

But before she could decide if he was safe to approach, Piper was already halfway to him.

“Um, Pipes-” Leo hissed, starting out to her. His loyalty was admirable. Or maybe he was just as reckless as Piper was.

Oh, well, Reyna decided, there was strength in numbers.

The men surveyed their little band of misfits forlornly.

“‘Sup?” Leo asked.

“What’s with the fire?” Coach Hedge elaborated. “And the dark energy in the air?”

The man looked over his shoulder at the fire on the horizon, and then back to them.

“The town went nuts.” He said, simply. “You know why, but Brad got his hand cut off for trying to steal a pack of cigarettes, then Marr got her eye poked out by Leah, because Leah found out about the affair.” Reyna saw her own horror, mirrored on the faces of her friends.

“And this is… Normal?” Piper asked. 

“Well,” the man said, “no, not particularly. Things went sideways probably last week?” He thought about it for another minute or so. “It was… Yeah, it was after Therese dumped me. So it was last Thursday.”

“And the town just as a whole, started to, what?”

“Well, Leah said she was avenging her honor. She took one eye each. One from Charles and one from Marr.”

“Why don’t you take us into town?” Piper suggested, And Reyna watched, rapt, as the man straightened. “Maybe we can help your friends?”

“I was-” the man looked out over the road. “I was going to leave. There’s nothing for me, here.”

“You missed the last bus.” Piper pointed out. “You should take us into town for the night. Show us what you mean, and then you can leave on the first bus on the morning.”

Reyna found herself nodding along. She knew that another bus, the real last bus of the day, would be coming along in another minute or so... But what Piper was saying just made so much sense. 

“What’s your name?” Rena asked, the second she saw the man make up his mind.

“Ethan.” The man offered, standing. Piper took Ethan’s arm and led them down into town.

And things were far worse than Reyna had expected.

She saw broken storefront windows, more graffiti and she’d ever seen her life, and all of it detailing sins of shopowners.

She was pretty sure she saw severed hand hanging in the window the display case, but she averted her eyes before she could do anything more than suspect.

The biggest bit of graffiti sat on the statue in the middle of the square.

The statue has likely been of the man on a horse, once upon a time, but the statues had it been cut off. The head itself was impaled upon the man’s brandished sword. On his back with the words: follow the golden rule.

“Do I want to know the golden rule?” Leo mock-whispered to Hazel. Hazel didn’t seem to hear him. She was staring around herself and horror, her hands held up to her forehead like she was about to swoon. 

Reyna reached out and took her by the shoulder.

“Are you all right?” She asked, but even as the words left her lips, she felt Hazel’s horror, her despair, and something else. A sharp slice of pain shot through Reyna’s head, like a migraine that only lasted for a moment. She shuddered and Hazel stumbled away from her, out of reach.

“Did you feel that?” Hazel asked, her voice hushed.

Italic attack, like Hazel had been under attack.

Reyna didn’t take kindly to people attacking her friends. Argentum, for the first time since they’d gotten off the bus, came up to walk beside her. She had to admit, his presence was a comfort.

“Yes,” Reyna said, finding her bearings again. “I felt that.” Hazel shook her head, like there was water in her ears.

“It’s like… There’s something here, some kind of influence. Something is running this town into the ground, and I don’t think that, whatever it is, will be satisfied with just a backwoods town in the middle of nowhere.” Hazel said, her voice low, her tone, confident, assured.

Whatever her words meant, Hazel was certain that they were the truth.

Ethan was still a few feet ahead. Coach Hedge shot Reyna and Hazel worried glance, and Leo started to make his way back to them.

“Is everything okay?” He asked, looking at Hazel’s pained expression with clear worry. Hazel shook her head with another frown, and in the quiet while he awaited a response, Reyna heard Ethan chattering away to Piper.

“And over there is the bakery, that was owned by Mr. Jones, before his husband shut the doors. Pretty sure he’s the reason Miss Betts is afraid to leave the house right now. Rumor has it that Miss Betts is one who almost broke them up. Religious reasons, or something.” He shrugged, “Hey, at this point, I figure she’d just be getting what she’s owed.” The words struck something with Hazel, her face twisted into a grimace. Piper turned back to face them, and it was clear that the words weren’t sitting quite right with her, either. 

“Hey, abuelita,” Leo said again, placing a gentle hand on Hazel’s shoulder. Humor chased off her slightly nauseous expression, and she smiled at Leo.

“I’m pretty sure I’m younger than you are.” She replied, Leo exaggerated his offended expression, realizing, as Reyna did, that keeping Hazel talking was keeping the influence of whatever was messing with the town from messing with Hazel, too. Reyna was going to have to ask later why Leo was calling her grandma.

Later, but not now, because now, Ethan was phoning a friend. Or, rather, he was flagging down a friend.

“Mayor Watterson” the man, tall enough that even at this distance, the setting sun cast his shadow long enough to reach them, flapped his hands in a “keep it down” gesture. “This is the mantra,” Ethan continued, still being helpful, “if anyone can help you, he can.” Piper beamed at him, and Reyna tamped down her jealousy. Now wasn’t the time.

The mayor ran a few steps closer, then paused and looked over his shoulder. Their ragtag group of misfits met the haggard mayor at the base of the grotesque statue. 

“Hello, Ethan, hello.” Mayor Watterson said, nervously.

“How long has the town been like this?” Leo asked. The mayor wrung his hands. “What started it?”

“Oh, I couldn’t tell you, I really couldn’t. One minute everything is fine, and the next minute: fires everywhere, and my secretary tries to stab me with a ballpoint pen.” 

Reyna thought about Ethan’s words, moments ago, about Miss Betts just “getting what she was owed” and couldn’t help but wonder if the mayor wasn’t getting his just desserts, too.

“What’s the Golden rule?” Piper asked. The mayor blinked and squinted at her, suspicious. After a moment’s deliberation, he seemed to reach the conclusion that she wasn’t worth his worry.

“Well, isn’t it obvious?” He sniffed. “‘ Do onto others as they have done to you.’”

“Er,” Reyna said, before she could stop herself. “I don’t think that’s how that saying goes.” The mayor looks her like she just adjusted the parties lived on the moon.

“Well, of course it is!” He cried. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” He said, but did not wait to be excused. Another moment passed, and he was gone.

And good riddance, too.

“So.” Piper said, “this all started… Why?”

“Magic,” said Coach Hedge cheerily, he, somehow, seemed to be the least affected by the town’s strange aura. Something tickled at Reyna’s mind.

“What happened after you and, Therese was it? Tell me what happened after the two of you broke up.” She demanded.

“What, why?”

“Because out of everything you’ve told us, that’s the only thing that you know for a fact.” Piper said, catching on. “You claim you don’t know anything, but you know for certain that all of this started after your breakup. How do you know that?” Ethan blanched.

“It-it’s silly. I know started the day after we broke up because I was hurting. Like, real bad.” He ran a hand across his face. “I was getting coffee and I just hated everything, and I wanted her to feel the way she’d made me feel. I wanted her to hurt like I was hurting.” He dropped his hand, and there was a desperate light his eyes. “And then, just as I thought that I wanted that, more than anything, the lady behind me tapped on my shoulder, and asked me my name.”

“Just your name?” Ethan nodded.

“I told her, and she looked… She looked really sad. And then she told me ‘ I had a son named Ethan, once.’ I told her I was real sorry for her loss and all, but she got really weird about it. And she said ‘I couldn’t help my son at all, but maybe I can help you.’” he shook his head. “And next thing I know, I’ve got my God damned latte, and the lady is gone, and the barista punches someone in the throat.”

Silence followed his declaration.

Coach Hedge bleated.

“Anything else?” Reyna asked, breaking the silence.

“Well, aside from everyone deciding that the golden rule was now law, and me not even  _ seeing _ Therese since? No. Nothing.”

Piper and Reyna exchanged a glance.

They needed to find Therese, and fast.

“That sounds like divine intervention,” Hazel said.

“That sounds a lot like nemesis.” Coach Hedge agreed.

“We need to find Therese.” Piper murmured.

“No!” Ethan interjected, sounding distinctly panicked. “I can’t see her- not like this!”

“What do you mean, Ethan?” Piper asked, there was something in her voice that Reyna realized meant Piper was done playing nice.  Ethan scuffed his shoes against the pavement of the sidewalk. “ _ Tell us what is going on. _ ” The power in Piper’s words, in her voice, nearly brought Reyna to her knees. 

“Pipes-” Leo said insistently, but Piper paid him no mind, taking a step closer to the terrified Ethan. 

“Did you do something to her?” Piper demanded. Reyna had to stop her, she had to do something, but she couldn’t push past the wall of power that Piper was emanating.  “Did you listen to Nemesis and take your revenge?  _ Tell the truth! _ ”

“N-no!” Ethan cried, “I didn’t do anything, I just don’t want to see her! She broke me and it meant  _ nothing _ to her!” 

Reyna finally made it past her shock and the power rolling off of Piper in waves and stumbled forward, and reached out to take Piper’s hand, to distract her, to stop her to- something.

The moment her fingertips brushed Piper’s clenched fist, Reyna was almost knocked back on her heels.

Piper’s normally-calm emotions had all been overwhelmed with righteous fury, pure, unadulterated anger, a thirst for revenge, to teach Ethan a lesson, make him understand that his need for vengeance had lead to all destruction. She felt a desperate need to inform him that what he was feeling  _ couldn’t _ have been love. He’d been seeing her as a possession, as something to own-

“Piper,” Reyna tried, yanking at the knot of feelings that  _ emphatically _ did not belong to Piper. 

A whisper broke through the cacophony of emotions:

_ Do to him what he would do to you- _

“Piper, he didn’t do anything to you, we don’t even know him.” Reyna pleaded. She could see an aura, dark purple, surrounding Piper, coiling around her and choking out the light that surrounded her naturally. With a start, she remembered her dream of Camp Jupiter. Octavian had been surrounded by that same pansy-purple glow. Piper turned her gaze to Reyna, her eyes hard, and for a moment it was clear that she didn’t recognize Reyna. For a moment, Reyna could tell, Piper resented her for getting in the way. 

For a moment, Reyna was sure that she had lost Piper, and she felt herself despair. 

“Come on, Pipes,” She pleaded, putting every ounce of feeling she had into it, going so far as to let her feelings flow into Piper, all of her respect and admiration she held for her friend went into the bond that Reyna had created.  

She didn’t even hesitate as she sowed Piper the other feelings, the ones she’d been nearly ready to admit to before: the way her heart fluttered when she held Piper’s hand, the way she wanted to brush Piper’s hair from her face, the way she wanted to pull Piper close and discover what Piper’s idea of a first date was firsthand. 

Piper shuddered, and the aura lost its thrall. 

There was no resentment left, no hunger for vengeance. Piper gasped, her eyes clearing. She tore herself away from Reyna, stumbling back and huddling in on herself. Leo was at her side in a second, reaching out hesitantly. Reyna stayed put.

“You okay, beauty queen?” She heard Leo ask as she turned back towards Ethan, who was still cowering on the ground, his eyes wide with horror, his face pale as a sheet. 

“I suggest you take us to Therese.” Reyna said, ensuring that Ethan knew that this was not a suggestion at all. Ethan scrambled to his feet, fielding a wide berth around Piper. Reyna did the opposite, walking as close as Piper would allow, to show that she wasn’t afraid. 

“Uh, what are we doing, kid?” Coach Hedge asked, sidling up to Reyna and shooting Ethan (but thankfully not Piper) wary looks. 

“We need to get to the heart of this.” Reyna said, keeping cool eyes on Ethan, a ready hand on her sword. “If Ethan was upset enough to call down Nemesis and start all of this because of a breakup, then we have to get him to move past it. If he moves on, then the lust for vengeance should dissipate, and Nemesis’ thrall should leave the town.

“‘Should’ being the operative word there,” Piper grumbled. She was still clearly off-kilter, and Reyna wished she knew what to do. 

As nonchalantly as she could manage, Reyna reached out and brushed the backs of their hands together, twining her pinkie with Piper’s as she did so. She didn’t feel any onslaught of rage, only shame, only embarrassment. She did her best to send back feelings of support. 

Piper didn’t let go. Reyna counted it as a win.

Subtly enough that even Reyna didn’t notice it at first, Piper slowed her steps, slowing Reyna’s pace with her, allowing the rest of their group to pass and giving Leo a wan smile as he he glanced back. 

“I’m so sorry,” Piper whispered, once they were (mostly) out of earshot.

“It wasn’t your fault, Piper.” Reyna said, unsure of what it was, exactly, that Piper needed to hear in order to realize that Piper was telling the truth. “It was Nemesis, and Ethan.” Piper shook her head.

“I wanted to hurt him. I was so mad- he doesn’t know what love is, this whole thing is just proof of that. You don’t hurt the people you love. Not on purpose. You don’t send a vengeance goddess after them, you don’t want them to hurt, ever.” Reyna shifted her fingers so that she was holding Piper’s hand properly. 

“True,” Reyna allowed, “But it wasn’t you that wanted to hurt him. You wanted him to understand and Nemesis took that and twisted it.” Reyna had no idea what the truth of that statement was. She felt certain that Piper had been angry, but that anger had been taken to the level of violence by the dark influences that had infected the town. Reyna squeezed Piper’s hand. 

“I scared you,” Piper said, somehow even more quietly, “I scared the others, too, sure, but nothing scares you.” Piper wouldn’t look at her. “I did.”

“I get scared all of the time.” Reyna admitted. “I just have years of training to fight through it. I wasn’t scared of you, Piper. I was scared for you. I didn’t want to lose yourself, I didn’t want to lose you.”

Piper looked at Reyna with inscrutable eyes.

“You mean that?” She asked quietly.

“I mean it. I mean a lot more than just that.” But that was as far as this damn town was going to let Reyna get.

Ethan stopped and crossed his arms, staring at a brick apartment building in front of them. Reyna glared, and Coach Hedge took the lead, brandishing his megaphone.

“What are you waiting for? You know you have to face her for going to make any of this right.” He said, gruffly. Reyna was glad to see that he was taking her lead, here. 

Ethan stomped over to the door, and punched one of the intercom buttons. After a moment there was answering static.

“Who is it?” Came a pleasant, yet wary voice. It was clear to Reyna that Therese already knew who it was.

At the sound of Therese’s voice, all remaining fight left Ethan, his shoulders slumping forward.

“Can we talk?” He asked quietly, “I’m not alone, so you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to be… Afraid, or anything.” Piper curled her fingers more tightly around Reyna’s. There was a sigh on the other side of the intercom, and the door clicked open. 

If Therese thought it was odd, Ethan coming back to her apartment with four scraggly teenagers in a middle-aged man, she didn’t show it. She opened the door. Her eyes were tired, and her hair tied back into the messy bun.

“I’ve never been afraid of you, Ethan.” Was all she said, opening the door to let them in.The room behind her was littered with boxes, and not much else. Ethan made a noise in the back of his throat, wounded.

“You’re leaving?” He asked, “you’re really doing it?”

“I always planned on leaving, Ethan.” Therese said smoothly, “you’re the one who said he wasn’t coming with.” She turned a tired smile onto Reyna and her friends. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry you have to deal with our leftover drama.” Leo shrugged, stepping in front of Ethan easily.

“The pleasure’s ours,” he purred, and Piper had to turn and hide a giggle in Reyna’s shoulder. “We’re here to help,” he declared, unfazed.

“We’re relationship counselors.” Reyna tacked on, as Leo was clearly not going to be forthcoming with a reason they were ‘there to help’.

“Trainees,” Hazel added quickly, and Therese’s confusion softened.

“We’re only here to observe, we just hated the thought of you two parting on such dark terms.”

“We broke up because I need to move. It’s for my dream job, out in New York, and I wanted to be able to make things work-”

“But we’re happy here!” Ethan interrupted. “I thought we were happy here, I thought we were in love!”

“ _ You _ are happy here, Ethan. This is my dream job. You gave me the ultimatum, I took the job. Love doesn’t mean that nothing ever changes. Love just means you’re willing to change when something comes along. You’re the one who said no to long-distance, and you decided that I had to choose between you and a job. You’re the one who refused to do anything to make things work.”

It sounded like Therese had given this a lot of thought.

“But I love you.”

“That means nothing if you’re not willing to do anything about it!” Therese exclaimed, clearly forgetting the others that were in the room with them. That was good, that meant the plan was working, and the two of them might really get this worked out. Ethan looked cowed. Therese sighed. “I love you too, Ethan, but I’m not going to give up my life for you if you’re not willing to do the same.” Ethan sighed as well. “This sucks, Ethan, and I’m hurting, too. I don’t want things to end between us, but it’s clear that we’ve run our course. At least for now. Please, at least try to see my side?” After a second, Ethan nodded, slowly.

Ethan kept glancing back at Piper, whose head was on Reyna’s shoulder, still, and Coach Hedge who managed to make a megaphone look like a menacing weapon.

Reyna was sure that his willingness to listen to her side of things without trying to turn her words against her was due, in no small part, to their presence. And it was visibly helping them both.

Listening always did.

The pair continued to talk about the logistics of their breakup, and Reyna could see the negative emotions slowly but surely leaving Ethan. His shoulders straightened and some of the darkness left his face. She tuned the conversation out, focusing on the feeling of Piper’s hand in hers, of Piper’s thumb tracing patterns on the back of her hand.

Reyna wasn’t sure when, exactly, the spell broke, or with what sentence Ethan fully forgave Therese for their breakup, but she did notice, slowly, when noise returned to the town. She could see the exact moment when people stopped being vengeful and afraid. Leo walked over to a window and peered out.

“Looks like it worked,” he said, beckoning them over. Reyna felt it like a physical weight on her heart when Piper’s fingers left her own. Reyna schooled her features so Leo wouldn’t see her pouting at the loss of contact. She was a Praetor, Praetors didn’t pout. Unfortunately, though, Reyna did get crushes. And she had one hell of a crush on Piper.

Reyna followed the other girl to the window, and looked out. As sure as Leo said, people had begun coming out of the woodwork, gazing all around themselves in a dazed horror.

At some point during their conversation, it seemed, Ethan had forgiven Terese.

And that had been enough.

“We should go,” Hazel said softly. “We still have to get camp. We still have to find Nico.”

The idea that so much had happened, but they still hadn’t reached their goal astonished Reyna for a moment.

For a moment, it, it all seemed fixable. In the wake of this simple conflict resolution, it seemed as though it all would be so easy.

And then Reyna remembered her dream, and things clicked into place.

“We have a bigger problem than finding Nico.” She declared, looking grimly down at the beheaded statue.

Octavian was coming.

And he was bringing an army.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at that! More plot! And the villain! Whoo boy, I think we're coming to the end now!   
> I will be posting one more chapter today, but first I have to go to class! R&R and all that classic fandom-y stuff! Come find me on tumblr, I'm sure you know where by now!


	16. All the Leaves Are Brown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are heating up! Am I talking about Jason and Nico or am I talking about the plot I shoehorned in here? Who knows!

Jason’s mind was reeling as they made their way back down to the underworld. Nico had fallen back asleep on him after using the shadow room at camp to transport them to a quaint Italian town. They’d wandered through streets Nico half remembered from almost a century ago. And he told Jason about his life, what he remembered for before they went to America. He recalled to Jason his father’s visits, his sister teaching him little lullabies, while the adults whispered about War. That sort of thing.

They’d walked, loitered in front of the street where his house had stood about seventy years prior, and then they’d walked some more. At some point (and Jason would deny that he remembered exactly when, if pressed), Nico took his hand, shyly, and Jason had made a miniscule attempt to hide his delight.

Of course, Nico was still injured, so there’d come a point, long after the sun had set, when it was just the street lamps illuminating the cobblestone road, when Nico began to nod off.

Jason tried to insist that they return to the underworld, that they stop for tonight, at least, but Nico had compromised with leading him to the bench and curling into Jason’s side. 

Jason couldn’t really complain. He dozed off as well, at some point, the steady hum of Nico’s breathing soothing him, luring him into a light doze.

Though, Jason doesn’t think he could have slept through the howling, even in his deepest slumber.

An icy wind tore through the air, ripping at his clothes and his hair. Instinctively, he pulled Nico closer, shivering against the chill.

Jason woke with a confused start, trying to guess the time by the position of the moon in the sky, but it was blocked from view by a rapidly shifting ink-black cloud.

“We need to go,” Nico said, his voice a harsh whisper. Jason hadn’t even realized he’d woken up.

His dark eyes were wide and horrified as he looked up at the sky. He stood, pulling Jason with him. Jason didn’t protest, even though he felt a pang of regret that the moments they’d been sharing were gone.

But Nico took both of his hands again and his thoughts were wiped clean by the shadows yanking him into the ether. 

They arrived at the palace gates to find the underworld… Changed.

Very changed.

The gates themselves were made of gold, not bone, as Jason had come to be used to seeing. There was no Cerberus barking in the distance, and the path from the Styx led not to the judges as it had every time Jason had seen it, but curved towards palace instead, glittering in the torchlight with hundreds of precious gems.

There was no line.

Nothing shifted down in asphodel, Elysium seemed to echo that silence, but the shifting, luminescent barrier gave away no secrets as it was. Jason had no way of knowing if there were any spirits anywhere, but Elysium was the least of his worries.

The wails of the damned were gone.

Jason turned to face the palace, colder, harsher, and more unwelcoming than it had been even the first time he’d come to the underworld. He averted his eyes, feeling a chill run down his spine.

“Nico,” he said quietly, urgently. “Nico, we need to leave. We need to get out of here. Immediately.”

Nico didn’t seem to hear him. His eyes were hooked on the emptiness of the underworld, horrified.

“Well now,” Came a calm, clear voice from behind Jason. He started, jarred at the abrupt end to the all-encompassing silence. Almost in tandem, he and Nico spun to face the newcomer. 

The golden gates were sinking slowly into the ground, and emerging from the palace doors behind them, walking as slowly as though he had all of the time in the world, was the Lord of the Underworld.

Pluto.

“It would seem that there’s a soul in my domain, yet.”

Jason bowed his head low. 

“Lord Pluto,” He stammered in greeting, in an attempt to be courteous. 

“I assume,” Pluto continued, paying Jason no mind. He seemed amused at the slightly dumbstruck looks on their faces. “That you know why my counterpart has abandoned his post and taken every last immortal soul with him?” Pluto’s voice was smooth as silk. It was the kind of voice, Jason realized, that could easily draw someone in. 

Nico and Jason shared a look, unsure how to answer the lord of the dead. Or, rather, how to answer a lord of the dead that they were  _ very _ unfamiliar with. Pluto sighed at their non-response and turned, motioning for them to follow him back into the palace. 

When they didn’t immediately move to follow, the ground quaked and began to move for them, the precious stones lining the pathway moving at Pluto’s behest.

Jason was, absurdly, reminded of airport walkways.

Every step Pluto took was carefully measured and even. Jason tried to pinpoint the difference between him and Hades, but at surface glance, they were nearly the same.

Except for their eyes.

Where Hades’ eyes were the inky, ever-shifting black of the Styx, Pluto’s were a cold flash of Imperial Gold in the dark halls of the Underworld. 

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that the untethered spirits in this realm have disappeared,” Pluto said, once they’d reached the throne room. Jason was glad to see that the main outline of the palace had stayed the same. That would make for a quick escape, in the event they had to make a break for it. “I can’t imagine what could have been so important that my Grecian counterpart had to leave so abruptly,” the path dragged Nico and Jason into the throne room, and the pair looked around themselves in shock. Aside from being incredibly ornate, the place was....

Well it was a mess.

Papers were strewn about the floor, and there were piles of it surrounding the thrones on the raised dais. 

“And he just  _ left _ all of this paperwork! Do you know how much paperwork is involved when even a  _ single _ spirit escapes the Underworld? There are millions missing! And then there’s the paperwork that had yet to be completed for incoming spirits, and if it weren’t for the fact that apparently, all of the spirits are being siphoned away to wherever Hades has run off to, I would be up to my ears in it!” Pluto cried, throwing his hands up in the air and gesturing broadly at the piles of paperwork that practically hid the throne from view. Pluto turned his blazing eyes back on them. “And then you two show up! Clearly you’re in cahoots with Hades to stick me with all of the paperwork, and none of the fun of assigning Eternal Torment. How did he do it? How did he separate the halves of our realm?!”

“Uh,” Jason said, regarding Pluto’s accusatory finger like it was a weapon of mass destruction.

“Um...” Nico echoed. “What? Sir, with all due respect, we just got here. I’m looking for my father-”

“Who has smuggled himself away!”

“And now that we know he’s not here,” Jason interjected, “We’ll be on our way to find him. And we’ll send him right on back here when we do.”

“Well why in the name of Juno’s hairy legs would I let you go?” Pluto demanded. “As far as I know, you’re the best insurance that I have to get him to come back here! I have no deals with you, Jason Grace. I am bound by no codes of honor to let you leave!”

“You’ve also made no bargains to ensure that they stay.” Came a familiar voice from the head of the throne room. Jason would never get used to being snuck up on by gods, or goddesses, but his knees went weak with relief at the sound of her voice. Sandaled feet hit the ground in measured footfalls as she walked, and Jason saw her out of his periphery as she stationed herself between Nico and himself. She placed a reassuring hand on both of their shoulders.

“Psyche,” Pluto said with a sneer. Jason could have kicked himself. True, his knowledge of the Greek gods was lacking in comparison with his knowledge of his own pantheon, but he should have been able to recognize Psyche, at least. “This is not your domain.”

“On the contrary,” Psyche said, her voice cool and her smile unflappable, “I think you’ll find that anywhere a  _ living _ soul is found is my domain. It is you who is currently operating outside of your jurisdiction.”

“Well, why should I let them go?” Pluto asked peevishly. “The least they could do is help me with this veritable mountain of paperwork. Mortals are good at that sort of thing.” 

“Well, if they find Hades and the other missing gods and return them to their posts, you won’t have nearly as much paperwork to do.” Psyche said, reasonably, echoing what Jason had been trying to insist earlier. 

“Other missing gods?” Nico asked, his voice a hushed whisper. Psyche squeezed his shoulder in warning. Pluto glared at them for a moment more.

“Fine! As I don’t currently have the means to keep them here, seeing as Hades stole all of my minions, you can have them.” He conceded, throwing his hands up in the air,  “But if they die, they’d better come straight to me! I’m not doing all of this by myself!” 

Psyche tightened her grip on their shoulders, and before Jason could even get through a “thank you,” they were standing in front of the closed palace gates, and Psyche was frog-marching them toward the Styx and the boundary of the Underworld.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked, “How did you do that? He was ready to assign us both eternal desk jobs!”

“Even gods have souls. Every soul can be persuaded, Jason Grace.” Psyche said, a small smile on her face. “You’ve seen it yourself.” Jason felt a memory stir, of Hades and Persephone, about to let him go...

“Wait, you did that? You made them keep me in the Underworld?”

“You have a good heart, Jason. I could see how you could be used as a bridge. Or an anchor.” She looked pointedly at Nico, who hadn’t stopped staring at her since she appeared at his shoulder. Jason was glad that Nico’s attention was diverted enough that he couldn’t see Jason, or the anger that flashed across his face. True, he wouldn't give up having met Nico for anything, but the knowledge that he had been tricked, that this had been orchestrated by Psyche for reasons Jason couldn't even begin to comprehend made him incomprehensibly angry. Psyche regarded him calmly, as if daring him to say something. He took a deep breath, trying to remind himself that she was an ally.

It didn’t help.

After a moment, though, she stopped waiting for him to draw his sword.

“The gods have gone silent,” She continued, when it became clear that Jason wasn't going to make a move. He exhaled and she looked ahead again, speaking over the sound of gravel crunching beneath their shoes. “I can’t get through to anyone, Zeus, Athena, Hermes-  _ no one _ is answering. And it’s not like they’re just ignoring me, either, I would be able to tell. The only one who’s truly ignoring my calls is my husband.” She sounded peeved. “But he’s stubborn enough that I would have predicted that, even if it weren’t the end of the world.”

"Why would he be ignoring you?" Psyche huffed a sigh and her fingers spasmed around Jason's shoulder, irritated.   
"He and I got into a fight a few months ago, that's why I've been staying with Persephone. She and I have been close, ever since Aphrodite left me passed out on the side of the road." Psyche sighed. "He's been holding a mite of a grudge over the fact that I moved to the underworld with her, instead of staying and listening to him moan about how I don't trust him. I mean, really, we don't need to rehash this argument every-" Psyche stopped speaking, instead drawing in a small gasp, her eyes fixed ahead of them.

Jason followed her gaze to where it had locked on the edge of the Styx. He half expected to find a barrier, or an army of the undead to drag them back to Pluto, despite what he’d said about not having any ‘minions,’ but instead he saw...

Charon’s ferry. Overturned in the onyx sludge of the Styx, and the man himself gasping for air, viscous fluid sloughing off of him and burning away as it hit the shore. Achilles stood over him, dry as a bone, not a drop of water from the Styx on him, hovering over Charon like a worried mother. 

Charon looked up as they approached and he bowed his head even as he gasped for breath.

“My lady, Lord Nico,” he greeted, his voice rasping, the sound of flint knocking together. Jason had to wonder whether or not that was his normal voice. He tried not to be offended by the lack of a greeting for himself. He wasn’t important here. 

“What happened?” Nico demanded, taking in the sight of the wrecked boat floating in the water.

“They didn’t touch the water.” Charon grumbled. “A million spirits rushed at me at once, they wreaked absolute havoc, and not a single one of them touched the Styx. It was like they flew right over it, like-”

“Like they had help from, say, someone who had wings?” Psyche suggested, crossing her arms and glaring at the ferry like it was somehow responsible. The boat groaned and creaked as it broke in two. 

“That would be an accurate description, my lady.” Charon conceded.

“Ugh, he’s such a  _ child! _ ” She cried, stomping her foot. 

Jason decided not to remark on that. 

“My Lady?” Charon asked, his skull-like features showing clear confusion. 

“My husband just emptied the underworld. All the spirits in at least two realms are gone. Hera only knows what he’s using them for.” Nico shifted closer to Jason, a small, wounded noise catching in the back of his throat.

“Do you mind telling me,” Achilles said, raising his voice over the impressive silence that followed, and turning, not to Psyche, but to Jason, “Why Patroclus was at the head of the charge?” 

“What?” Jason asked, his mind caught on the pure fury in Achilles’ voice. Beside him, Nico was shaking his head. 

“Patroclus was in Elysium,” Nico protested, “All of the spirits in Elysium are protected, they’re still there. I can feel their presence.”

“All but one,” Achilles insisted, stepping forward. Jason could see, now, how it would be easy to follow this man to the death. He gave off an aura, a confidence that Jason only ever pretended to have. “Do you think I’d forget his face so easily?” A stretch of impassible silence answered him. “The last time Patroclus lead an army, it killed him. The last time I left him to fight my war alone, it killed him. What will happen this time?”

Jason made a snap decision.

He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and stepped closer to Achilles. 

“I promised to get you back to him.” Jason replied, quietly. He held out a hand to Achilles, a peace offering. “Help me get him back and I will keep that promise.”

Achilles didn’t hesitate, joining hands with Jason nearly as soon as he’d finished speaking. 

As quickly as Jason could manage, he murmured the words of the spell he’d taken from the Hecate cabin and bound Achilles’ soul to his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone can thank Mo for convincing me to stop hoarding chapters, too. I am a fic dragon, but the whole point of this fic is to share it with all of you, and even though I was really set on one final nine-chapter update, a 4/5 split ain't bad!  
> I can't give you a definite update deadline, but I do know that finishing these next five chapters won't take a year. I'm not working on multiple longfics at once (plus a few challenges) anymore, so you can expect it much, much, muchmuchmuch sooner.
> 
> also I keep finding shit that's wrong with the earlier chapters. It's ridiculous. Anyway I went back and edited again, sorry. and if y'all find anything wrong, let me know!

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, this is the fic that I mentioned this morning (*cough* three am *cough*) on [ Tumblr ](effectively-immortal.tumblr.com)  
> This part is really short, but part two is done, but not typed, so you can expect it soon. (sunday night at the latest.)


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